Exploring The Role And Work Content Of Oncology Specialist Nurse

Nowdays, there’s a growing number of cancer morbidity and mortality.It is true thatcancer has been one of the most serious diseases threatening to human health. Cancer notonly let patients and their families meet a heavy economic and psychological burden,butalso bring a huge challenge to the government’s health care system and everyone’shealth.As a result,thers’s a growing public demand for cancer treatment and nursing.Thelong-term practice of Oncology Specialist Nurse(OSN) in overseas and the amount ofresearchs confirm that the role of OSN is a important guarantee to improve patients’ qualityof life, and it’s also the inevitable requirement of promoting oncology specialistnursing.However as the specific nursing in our country is still in its infancy，thers’s still nounfied definition, role and work content of OSN, which limited the further development ofOSN. Therefore, this reasearch will take Shanghai as the research base，aim to explore thedefinition, roles, and work content of OSN which is suitable for the present stage of thedevelopment of OSN,and finally promote the further development of OSN.This research mainly divided into three parts:The first part: Systemly reviewed the literature research，got a full understanding ofthe OSN’s concept, development history，role and work content.Despite the OSN’sdefinition and work content varies from each other due to the different national policy andpractice setting requirements，the definition of foreign OSN can be roughly divided intotwo levels:①A registered nurse with a working experience in the specialized field，acquired systematic specialized theory and practice training and obtain correspondingrecognition（represented by SN）；②A registered nurse who have acquired specializedknowledge and skills to provide health care and are expected to hold a master’s ordoctorate degree in their specialty(represented by APN). The role of OSN can be dividedinto six aspects: clinical practitioners, educators, consultant, coordinator, manager andresearcher, each role has its corresponding working content, but the specific roles and workis differences between different countries and regions.The second part: explore the present condition and expectations of the role and workcontent of OSN in Shanghai.Using purposive sampling and snowball sampling method，interviewing16OSN andPhysicians in Shanghai,who were familiar with the development situation of oncologyspecialist nursing between China and other country，focus on their view and expectations to the role and work content of ONS in China. Results show that the respondents’s view ofthe concept of OSN can mainly divided into two levels, one is senior charge nurse, theother is oncology clinical nurse specialists. Most OSN approved that clinical practiceshould be the core role, the manager role should be focus on improve the quality of nursingspecialist, the researcher role need to further strengthen, at the same time the other rolesshouldn’t be neglect.Combined with the interview result, using participatory observation andunparticipatory observation method to observe12potential OSN on7hospital in Shanghai,in order to got a full understanding of the actual situation of the clinical work，then pointsout the difference between reality and ideal. Results show that although the OSN’s workunits, post and position is different from each other, the OSN’s actual and ideal role andwork content exist certain resemble，which is all OSN provide a high level of clinicalnursing services, help the team member to solve clinical problems,and also have a certainrole in education, consulting, research and management.Using a self-made questionnaire investigate17respondents，who appears in our earlystudy（semi-structured interviews and field observation）, to evaluate the similarities anddifferences between the actual and ideal role and work content of ONS.Results showed thatin the ONS ‘s clinical practitioner and educator role, the item which contains highimportance recognition and the high actual execution frequency is more than the OSN’sconsultant, manager and coordinator role, and the item of researcher role exist least.Thus,through the analysis and comparisons the actual and ideal role and work content of ONS,reasch make a further induce of the OSN’s role and work content.The third part: the construction of OSN’s role and work content. Learn from theStrong advanced nursing practice mode and combined with the above research，preliminarybuild the draft framework“The Role and Work Content for OSN in Shanghai”. ThroughFocu Group Interviews and other methods to revise and improve the content,and finallyfinished“The Role and Work Content for OSN in Shanghai”.Conclusion:This study is based on qualitative research, using a variety of data collection tosystemly explore the definition, role and work content of OSN. The definition ofOncology Specialist Nurse is “A registered nurse with a working experience in theoncology specialized field，acquired systematic specialized theory and practice training and obtain corresponding recognition, has abundant specialized nursing knowledge, skills andclinical practical experience, able to skillfully use oncology specialized nursing knowledgeand skills solve or instruct charge nurse solve difficult and complicated issues”. The roleand work content of OSN mainly includes six aspects (clinical practitioners, educators,consultants, system support, professional leading and researchers).This work content hasstrong specialized subject characteristic,it may has a certain guiding significance for OSN’spost setting, personnel training and using.