Identifying the Educational Needs of Oncology Nurses in Georgia

3/16/2005

Introduction The development of targeted educational programs for cancer care professionals throughout the state is one of three primary goals of the Georgia Center for Oncology Research and Education (GA-CORE). As an initial step in providing programming that is relevant to clinicians, a series of educational needs assessments are being conducted among oncology nurses, social workers, and pharmacists. Development of the Educational Needs Assessment Instrument In 2003, the GA-CORE received a grant from the Oncology Nursing Society Foundation to develop and conduct a statewide oncology nursing educational needs assessment. A team of oncology nurses developed an assessment instrument based on the ONS Education Agenda of 2003. The instrument included 62 topics covering the broad areas of oncology nursing practice, healthcare environment, and issues and trends. Nurses were asked to respond to each of the topics by ranking the importance of the topics for promotion of quality cancer care (0 = Not at all, 1 = Somewhat, 2 = Quite a lot, 3 = Extremely) and their personal need for additional education on the topic (0 = Not at all, 1 = Somewhat, 2 = Significant, 3 = Critical). In addition, respondents were asked to provide preferences for days for offerings, length of offerings, distance for travel, cost, and program delivery formats. Georgia Oncology Nursing Educational Needs Assessment Results During 2004, 485 oncology nurses throughout the State of Georgia completed the needs assessment. Fifty-seven percent of the respondents were members of one of the six ONS chapters in the state (Augusta, Gwinett, Lanier, Macon, Metro Atlanta, and Savannah). Respondents were female (93%), Caucasian (82%), working full-time (87%), in direct patient care areas (81%). Fifty-eight percent of respondents worked in a community physician practice and 32% worked in a hospital-based acute or ambulatory care facility. Respondents (6.4%) indicated that they were enrolled currently in an educational program: 26% in an undergraduate and 8% in a graduate program. The top-ranked 12 topics for importance to quality cancer care and personal need for education are presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Top-ranked Educational Topics for Oncology Nurses in Georgia (N=485)

Rank	Importance to Quality Care	Personal Need for Education
1	Pain management	Chemotherapy
2	Neutropenia management	Management of site-specific cancers
3	Nausea and vomiting management	Biotherapy
4	Quality of life	Neurotoxicity management
5	Fatigue management	Complementary/alternative therapy
6	Neurotoxicity management	Pain management
7	End of life care	Evidence-based practice
8	Chemotherapy	Genetics
9	Palliative care	Depression
10	Renal toxicity management	Renal toxicity management
11	Depression	Respiratory assessment skills
12	Genetics	Multidisciplinary collaboration

Rankings for preferences for days of the week for program offerings included from most preferred to least preferred: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The preference for program offerings was one hour in a seminar format. However, respondents did indicate a willingness to participate in self-learning program formats including monographs, computerized programs, distance learning, telephone conferencing, and web conferencing. Chat rooms and electronic bulletin board programming formats were ranked the least preferable. Respondents (91%) reported that they had access to the internet from home; whereas only 69% indicated that they had access to the internet from work. Implications for Oncology Nursing Continuing Education Programming in Georgia The results obtained from the GA-CORE Oncology Nursing Education Needs Assessment provide the basis for development of continuing education programming for GA-CORE, professional nursing societies, including the Georgia ONS Chapters, healthcare organizations and agencies, schools of nursing, and Georgia AHEC centers. The survey results may be used to document the need for programs on the identified topics for the purposes of obtaining continuing education credit for programs. The targeted programming will help to address the specific educational needs of oncology nurses in Georgia and in turn contribute to knowledge development and dissemination to promote quality cancer care throughout the state. Evaluation GA-CORE would like to determine if the results of the educational needs assessment of oncology nurses in Georgia was helpful to you and your organization in developing continuing education programs. Please write us and let us know if your have used the data and for what purpose at info@gacore.org. If the information is used in program planning, GA-CORE plans to conduct the oncology nursing needs assessment biannually. In the Future The GA-CORE, in collaboration with Siemens Medical Solutions, will be piloting technology-based educational programming available through the GA-CORE web portal (www.gacore.org). A one-hour program on Genetics in Cancer Care will be available in the Spring, 2005, for a limited number of oncology nurses to preview and evaluate. To access the program, reviewers will need to be assigned a token. If you would be interested in serving as a pilot reviewer for the program, please contact Jane Clark, PhD, RN at jclark@gacore.org by April 30, 2005.