Indian nurses’ beliefs on physical activity promotion practices for cancer survivors in a tertiary care hospital—a cross-sectional survey

PeerJ

article

Hritika D. Pai¹  Stephen Rajan Samuel¹  K. Vijaya Kumar¹  Namrata S. Chauhan¹  Charu Eapen¹  Alicia Olsen²  Justin W.L. Keogh¹ 

[1] Department of Physiotherapy, Kasturba Medical College;Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond University;Southern Cross University, National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine;Human Potential Centre, AUT University;Cluster of Health Improvement, University of the Sunshine Coast

关键词: Cancer;    Nurses;    Survivorship;    Exercise;    Neoplasm;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.13348

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

PurposeTo describe the physical activity (PA) promotion practices, beliefs, and barriers of Indian nurses working with cancer survivors, and to gain preliminary insights into how their educational qualification might affect PA promotion practices.MethodsA validated questionnaire was used to obtain the data (N = 388). Sub-group comparisons were performed based on nursing qualification i.e., Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSc) and General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) using Mann-Whitney U test and chi square analysis for continuous and categorical variables, respectively.ResultsThe nurses believed that oncologists (47%) followed by physiotherapists (28.9%) were primarily responsible for providing information regarding PA to cancer survivors. The most common period in which the nurses’ promoted PA was post treatment (31.7%), although very few nurses (13.3%) promoted PA across more than one of the three treatment periods. Nurses felt that PA had many benefits for cancer survivors; improved mental health (87.7%) and HRQoL (81.1%). Lack of knowledge (42.2%) and lack of time (41.6%) were the most frequently cited barriers. The comparisons based on educational qualification did not typically reveal many significant differences.ConclusionIndian nurses both BSc and GNM qualified, wish to promote PA to cancer survivors despite numerous barriers, across various stages of treatment and believe PA is beneficial to the survivors in the process of recovery. Overcoming these barriers might aid in better promotion of PA to cancer survivors.Implication for cancer survivorsNurses working in a tertiary care hospital in India are willing to promote PA amongst cancer survivors but require more training and support in this area of practice.

【 授权许可】

CC BY