Cancer nursing in Europe: an account based on interviews with students, nurses and doctors

A growing number of projects concerned with the education and training of nurses to care for patients with cancer reflects an increasing awareness of the value of adequate and appropriate preparation of these nurses. Although increase in any knowledge or behaviour change is notoriously difficult to measure (Chavasse 1994), the importance of evaluation of such programmes is widely recognized (Chambers 1988, Ferguson 1994). An assessment of post-basic educational activities in the area of training in oncology for nurses was funded by Europe Against Cancer in 1996. As part of this project, a number of interviews took place with educational course organizers and participants from different European countries. In addition to information regarding the value of educational courses established, more general issues arose as a result of the semi-structured interviews reflecting some of the wider concerns of nurses involved in cancer care. The aim of this paper is to present some of the themes which emerged in the course of these discussions.