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Tags: Healthcare
The Use of Clinical Guidelines by Oncology Nurses in Cancer Symptom Management

Healthcare delivery is becoming more and more complex and keeping up to date is challenging in most fields, but particularly difficult for nurses in Europe where access to latest research is not always available in the language of each country. Furthermore training is lacking in how to use existing evidence. An additional challenge is that many nurses feel disempowered to make change despite evidence that the use of clinical guidelines is one of the factors that lead to quality improvement, as well as enhancing cost effectiveness and job satisfaction. The European Oncology Nursing Society (EONS), in partnership with, the USA- based Oncology Nursing Society is working to fill this gap in the field of cancer care.

The programme is implemented in 2 phases of work.

Phase one comprises various steps through which 5 symptom guidelines have been evaluated by a panel of European experts at a consensus meeting in Geneva, Switzerland in April 2012. This work was to identify European differences to USA specifications for clinical implementation.

The second phase of the project will focus on dissemination and implementation. The guidelines will then be made available as an electronic resource and toolkit ready for dissemination at a workshop in Brussels in September 2012. Oncology nurses are invited to participate in an intensive workshop in Brussels in September on Putting Evidence into Practice with a joint European and USA faculty. Nurse Managers are also invited to help support nurses in their implementation.

Findings will be shared at a final workshop in Prague in 2013 and disseminated widely.