Oncology Nurses' Versus Oncology Patients' Perceptions of Caring Behaviors Given to Patients in Oncology Units

Cancer is a group of diseases characterized by the abnormal growth and spread of cells. Caring is the essence of nursing. Caring to be meaningful needs to be based on mutual agreement between nurses and patients as to what constitutes nurse caring behaviors. As a result, healthcare professional can enhance patients' satisfaction of care by providing appropriate caring behavior. The Present Study Aimed: To identify the caring behaviors which oncology patients and oncology nurses perceive to be most important in making patients feel cared for. A comparative descriptive research design was conducted on 40 oncology nurses and 40 oncology patients and data were collected from South Egypt Cancer Institute at Assuit. Data were collected using Interview questionnaire Sheet, and Caring Assessment Questionnaire The Results: Have shown that there were differences and similarities among nurses and patients in the ranking of the 10 most important Care-Q items. Patients and nurses agreed on 6 out of the 10 most important items. Interestingly again, the first one items is the same for both groups. These results demonstrated that a basic harmony between the two groups with respect to the priorities of care. The result shown that there were significant differences between patients and nurses within the top 10 caring behaviors. Conclusions: The oncology patients and nurses perceived highly physical aspects of caring and found that very highly concordance between oncology patients' and oncology nurses' perception of the most important nurse caring behavior items and more agreement on caring priorities in making patients feel cared for. Recommendations: Increase level of awareness among nurses regarding caring behavior using available mass media as (posters, cards) and implement different nursing educational programs to improve and enhance caring behavior for the care of cancer patients and establish of outreach program for students nursing about caring behavior given to patients in oncology units.