Half of people who receive cancer treatment will visit the emergency department at some point during their care. But new research funded by ENA shows that few emergency nurses have received training on the unique care these patients may need.
Rebecca Lash, PhD, RN, NPD-BC, CNL, CEN
Rebecca Lash, PhD, RN, NPD-BC, CNL, CEN, nurse scientist for Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles, and Sorayah Gimenez, MSN, RN, OCN, CEN, CNL, care consultant nurse at MD Anderson Cancer Center, received a grant from ENA to help them research the level of training emergency nurses have received and the nurses’ interest in further oncological education. The results of their research will be presented at Emergency 2024 in an ePoster titled “Evaluating the Oncology-Related Education Needs of Emergency Nurses.”
The inspiration for this study came from Lash and Giminez’s clinical work: They had both seen many cancer patients come to the ED for complications related to their illnesses and treatments. While cancer treatment has transformed — patients are living longer and some undergo part of their chemo treatment at home — nurses haven’t always received updated training.
“The landscape of cancer treatment has changed drastically, but the education hasn’t necessarily kept up,” said Gimenez. “They get some info in nursing school but then not much beyond that.”
Lash is very aware of the educational demands already placed on nurses. So, she wanted to be sure that if they were going to push for further training, nurses identified the need and interest for it. They worked with content-area experts to develop a survey that would gauge nurses’ current oncological-care needs and wants.
The 237 nurses who responded varied in experience and geography, but the results were clear: Only 28 percent of surveyed ED nurses were receiving cancer-specific education or training, while 97 percent identified a moderate or high need for oncological education.
“While I was expecting an identified need, the large number surprised me and really echoes that, yes, we need some level of training,” Lash said.
Nurses said the weakest areas were triage of complications and oncologic emergencies, assessment of cancer-treatment complications and end-of-life conversations.
Sorayah Gimenez, MSN, RN, OCN, CEN, CNL
Lash hopes their research can be the first step toward developing a curriculum focused on cancer care for ED nurses.
“I don’t want education for education’s sake, but I want education to help make nurses and patients’ live better,” Lash said.
Lash and Giminez were grateful for the ENA grant that funded part of their research. They said having ENA’s support showed credibility to potential respondents. It also enabled them to purchase small gift cards as incentives for study respondents. “We know they’re busy nurses and we want to show that we valued their time,” Lash said.
If you have an interest in contributing to the ePoster research process, consider joining the Emergency Nursing Research Advisory Council. ENA is accepting applications for volunteers for ENRAC and other committees through Sept. 13. Click here to apply.
The Call for Abstracts and Proposals is expected to open in November for applicants to submit ePoster abstracts for an opportunity to present at Emergency Nursing 2025.