Abstract
Abstract
Background
The cancer burden in Africa is on the rise. A Cancer Training Course on screening, prevention, care, and community education is crucial for addressing a wide range of cancer health issues. When appropriately educated healthcare providers on cancer provide care, patient care improves, and healthcare costs decrease. However, in Tanzania, doctors and nurses receive little or no training in primary cancer care in their bachelor’s program.
Aim
This study assessed the need and acceptability of a cancer training course for nursing and medical doctor students at the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Methods
This study was a cross-sectional parallel mixed method study during the 3-month follow-up within the larger study on sexual health training for health professionals. The study was a randomized controlled (RCT), single-blind, parallel trial of sexual health training versus a waitlist control among health students at MUHAS in Tanzania. Descriptive analysis was performed to analyze the participants’ demographic information, need, and acceptability of the cancer training courseto determine the frequencies and percentages of their distribution between disciplines. In addition, inductive thematic analysis was performed for the qualitative data. The RCT study was registered at Clinical Trial.gov (NCT03923582; 01/05/2021).
Results
Data were collected from 408 students (272 medical doctors and 136 nursing students). The median age of the participants was 23 years. Most (86.0%) medical and 78.1% of nursing students reported receiving little to no cancer training. On the other hand, most (92.3%) medical and nursing (92.0%) students were interested in receiving cancer training. Furthermore, 94.1% of medical and 92.0% of nursing students needed a cancer training course in their undergraduate program. In addition, participants said a cancer training course would be important because it would help them improve the quality of cancer care and enhance the quality of life for patients by ensuring early diagnosis and treatment.
Conclusion
A cancer training course is both highly needed and acceptable to medical and nursing students. Implementation of this cancer training course will improve students’ knowledge and skills and eventually improve the quality of cancer care and patients’ quality of life by ensuring early diagnosis and management.
Funder
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Reference26 articles.
1. Oti NOO, de Villiers M, Adejumo P, Okumu R, Maßliti B, Elkateb N, et al. Strengthening oncology nursing education and training in Africa in the year of the nurse and midwife: addressing the challenges to improve cancer control in Africa. Ecancermedicalscience. 2021;15:1209. https://doi.org/10.3332/ecancer.2021.1209.
2. World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer. Cancer fact sheets. Liver. 2022. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cancer. Accessed 3 April 2023.
3. Busolo DS, Woodgate RL. Cancer prevention in Africa: a review of the literature. Glob Health Promot. 2015;22(2):31–9. https://doi.org/10.1177/1757975914537094.
4. American Cancer Society: Cancer Facts & Fig. 2022. https://www.cancer.org/content/dam/cancer-org/research/cancer-facts-and-statistics/annual-cancer-facts-and-figures/2022/2022-cancer-facts-and-figures.pdf. Accessed 12 June 2023.
5. Yahia M. Countering the rise of cancer in sub-Saharan Africa. Cancerworld [Internet]. 2021. https://archive.cancerworld.net/cancerworld-plus/countering-the-rise-of-cancer-in-sub-saharian-africa/. Accessed 20 April 2023.