Factors Related to Oncology Nurses’ Exercise Counseling for Management of Fatigue of Women during Treatment for Breast Cancer

Abstract

Purpose: To identify and explore the predictors of nurses' exercise counseling for the management of fatigue of women during treatment for breast cancer.Design: Descriptive correlational. Setting:Registered nurses who were current members of the Oncology Nursing Society.Sample: 115 nurses working in oncology settings, providing direct care to adult women receiving treatment for breast cancer.Methods: Nurses completed a demographic questionnaire, an Exercise Questionnaire, two Exercise Beliefs, and one Exercise Counseling Behaviors Scales. Main research variables:personal experience with exercise, exercise barriers beliefs, exercise benefits beliefs, exercise counseling behaviors.Findings: Exercise barriers beliefs, the nurse's current position nurse, and knowledge about National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines predicted exercise counseling behaviors. Conclusion:Nurses' beliefs about exercise barriers are most important to their exercise counseling for women with breast cancer and cancer-related fatigue (CRF). Implications for nursing:Educational programs are needed to improve nurses' knowledge about standards of care for the treatment of CRF. Strategies need to be developed to assist patients to overcome barriers and promote nurses' exercise counseling behaviors.Knowledge Translation i. Nurses who believe in the benefits of exercise, but also have strong beliefs that women with breast cancer experiencing CRF have many barriers to exercise, tend not to counsel them to exercise.ii. Nurses may need to explore strategies to increase their exercise counseling behaviors in the presence of their personal beliefs about exercise barriers.iii. Nurse leaders could mentor staff nurses to alter the impact of exercise barriers beliefs.Keywords: exercise beliefs, fatigue, counseling, knowledge, behaviors, nurse leaders, cancerNursing & Care Open Access Journal Research ArticleOpen Access Factors related to oncology nurses' exercise counseling for management of fatigue of women during treatment for breast cancer 78Copyright: ©2017 Shing Citation: Shing DH. Factors related to oncology nurses' exercise counseling for management of fatigue of women during treatment for breast cancer. Nurse Care Open Acces J. 2017;2(3):77-83. DOI: 10.15406/ncoaj.2017.02.00037and counseling during treatment to motivate women with breast cancer to exercise, thus minimizing their fatigue. The Oncology Nursing Society Foundation came to the same conclusion after supporting the development of the Breast Cancer Care Quality Measure's set. One of the Quality measures was to ascertain the percentage of patients beginning chemotherapy who received counseling about exercise as an intervention to combat fatigue. 14 Background and conceptual frameworkCurrently, nurses' management of fatigue is inconsistent with national treatment guidelines, which recommend that exercise counseling includes encouraging patients with CRF to exercise. 1,15,16 According to the ONS, about 10% of patients with breast cancer received recommendation to exercise...