Opinion of Nurses on Cancer, its Treatment and Curability: A Survey among Nurses in Public Health Service

Abstract

RESULTSThe results of the survey are divided into three main sections:(1) Opinion on the care of the cancer patient.

The accuracy of nurses’knowledge about survival rates for early cancer in four sites

“…By contrast the prognosis for lung cancer is poor, irrespective of the stage at which treatment is givea For the small proportion of cases where early diagnosis is possible a 5-year survival rate of only about 10-20% can be expected, thus 25 survivors is the most accurate reply. Davison (1965) used the range 0-25 to define an accurate response for lung cancer, while using a fixed point-75, for the other sites he studied, breast, cervix and mouth. This has some merit in view of the poor prognosis for lung cancer but it seems unsatisfactory to compare accuracy for different sites by using a range of answers for one and a fixed point for others.…”

“…Here, for skin cancer the response 100 will be defined as the most accurate but consideration will also be given to answers in the range 75-100 as having a reasonable degree of accuracy. Similarly for lung cancer a reply of 25 will be regarded as the most accurate, but responses in the range 0-25 will also be examined Rockliff (1977) has criticized the method used by Davison (1965) and Easson (1967) and repeated here as too rigid While this has some validity, her own method -asking respondents to mark a cross on a 100 millimetre line, measuring its position to determine knowledge and then putting the r^ult into pre-determined categories -seems equally problematic.…”

“…Other studies (Davison 1965, Easson 1967, Rockliff 1977 have been particularly concerned with the question of attitudes, examining whether nurses mid others are optimistic or pessimistic in their assessment of survival rates. This is an important issue but here the focus is on another area of concern -the role of nurse training in the development of a body of professional knowledge about cancer.…”

The impact of nurses' encounters with cancer on their attitudes towards the disease

“…It has been established for some time that cancer holds particularly negative connotations for both the lay public (Brooks, 1979) and health professionals (Davison, 1965;Easson, 1967). Nurses seem to have grave doubts about the curability of cancer and thus the value of aggressive treatment (Felton et al, 1981).…”

Cancer and cancer education— opinions of some secondary school teachers in Northern England

“…Nurses' (Davison, 1965) interest in other aspects of health education, but it must be borne in mind that they were a self-selected sample, and the 40 per cent who did not complete the questionnaires may have included teachers who were least interested in health education.…”