Oncology nurses' perceptions of their relations with family members in an ambulatory cancer care setting: a mixed methods study.

Abstract

Trends signal an increasing prevalence of people living through and beyond a cancer diagnosis with an enhanced reliance on ambulatory cancer care services and family caregiving. Despite this trend, there has been limited focus on nurses' experiences with providing support to families who care for patients in the community. For oncology nurses in ambulatory care settings, job satisfaction has decreased significantly as they are concerned with their ability to consistently provide safe and quality care to patients and their family. Although other studies indicated that the lack of time and limited resources are regrettably accepted aspects of nurses' work environments, our mixed methods small-scale study addressed how work environments still can meet the growing need for enhanced support and relations among nurses, patients, and families in ambulatory cancer care.