Psychosocial Services Provided to Cancer Patients and Nurses' Difficulties in Psychosocial Assessment and Intervention: A Nationwide Study

Abstract

Objective: The study mainly aims to determine the current state of psychosocial services offered to cancer patients and the views of nurses regarding the ways to meet patients’ psychosocial needs. Other aims to evaluate barriers to meeting patients’ psychosocial needs and measure nurses' difficulty level of psychosocial assessment and intervention practices. Methods: This multicenter, cross-sectional study was conducted with 1189 nurses providing direct care to adult cancer patients in 32 hospitals in 12 geographical regions of Türkiye. The data were collected by a survey prepared in accordance with the aims of the study. Results: Three-quarters of the participants reported that their hospital has psychosocial support services while 67.7% stated that this service was provided by psychiatry consultation. Nearly half (49%) stated that all healthcare professionals are responsible for meeting patients’ psychosocial needs, especially it is an integral part of their nursing duties. However, organizational conditions (48.2%-30.7%) are the most important barriers to meeting the psychosocial needs of the patients. Participants have difficulty mostly in assessing and intervening in psychosocial needs of patients mostly in "sexual problems" and "rejection of treatment", and least in "patients’ reactions to illness". Also, the participants have more difficulty in assessing seven of the 19 psychosocial dimensions and intervening in five (P<.05). Conclusion: This study may be contributed to better structuring of psychosocial services in Türkiye. It can also guide the planning of psychosocial care training. Institutional barriers need to be overcome, especially the nurse-patient ratio, and the psychosocial care capacity of nurses should be improved.