Improving Knowledge and Attitude of Nurses Working Inchemotherapy Wards Through A Short Educational Course: Asuccessful Experience in Mashhad

Background: cancer is the third leading cause of death in iran. novelchemotherapeutic agents can lead to considerable improvements incancer treatment, although using these agents requires special skillsand experiences. the aim of this study was to evaluate the impact ofa short course education on nurses’ knowledge and attitude.methods: overall, 24 nurses participated in this short educationalcourse, supervised by several clinical/radiation oncologists. during atwo-week period, several protocols of chemotherapy, complicationsassociated with chemotherapy, and the management of adverseoutcomes was taught to the participants with a special emphasis onnursing considerations. before the program and at the end of thecourse, the multiple choice questionnaire (mcq) and directobservation of procedural skills (dops) were used for evaluating theeffectiveness of the program on the participants’ knowledge.changing their attitude was also evaluated by an author-madequestionnaire. the mean knowledge and attitude scores before andafter the interventions were compared using paired t-test.results: overall, four participants (16%) were male and 20 (83%)were female. the majority of the subjects (90%) worked atchemotherapy wards. sixteen (66%) versus twenty two (91%) nursesachieved a minimum score of 70% on mcq before and after thecourse, respectively (p=0.03). the mean scores before and after thecourse were 18.7±8.6 versus 26±11 for mcq (p=0.03) and30.3±10 versus 45.3±14 for dops (p=0.004). the mean ofattitudes’ score were 3.93±1.7 and 4.04±1.2 before and after thecourse, respectively, that showed a significant difference (p=0.01).conclusions: short educational courses about major subjects inoncology nursing could improve nurses’ knowledge and attitude.