Assessing Oncology Nurses’ Knowledge about Physical Exercise for Cancer patients under Treatment: A Cross-sectional Study

Background; Cancer is a major health crisis worldwide. Advanced cancer treatment improves patients’ survival rate; however, the quality of life (QOL) is compromised due to treatment side effects. Cancer-related-fatigue (CRF) is frequently experienced (80-90%). Physical exercise (PE) reduces CRF considerably1. At the study site, quality department audit report shows frequent interruption during cancer treatment due to high CRF levels. In 2021, a total of 188 patients withheld their radiation treatment due to CRF. No published study found sufficiently addressing oncology nurses’ knowledge level on the benefits of PE for cancer patients during treatment in Kingdom of Bahrain. Study aimed to assess the current knowledge level of oncology nurses regarding the PE for cancer patients undergoing treatment: Objectives/purpose: This study was to measure the associations between participants’ demographic characteristics and their level of knowledge regarding PE for patients with cancer. The study aimed to assess the current knowledge level of oncology nurses regarding the PE for cancer patients undergoing treatment. Methods: An online questionnaire, adopted from Roberta Anderson (2018)2, was administered to assess oncology nurses’ knowledge. Online survey shared with all oncology nurses (324 nurses) chosen through convenience sampling for the descriptive cross-sectional study at the Oncology Center in Bahrain. 185 responses out of the 244 recorded were effectively completed and analyzed. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 25; descriptive analyses were utilized to describe the demographic characteristics and level of knowledge, and parametric inferential statistics was used to measure the association between variables. The Results: Sample size offers 177 participants (5% margin error and 95% confidence level). Participants demonstrated low level of knowledge (42.2%) regarding PE for oncology patients. Demographic characteristics were not associated with the knowledge level. Firstly, the statistical analysis showed a weak correlation between participants’ knowledge level and length of clinical experience (p<0.0001) Secondly, the correlation between the length of the oncology clinical experience and participant’s knowledge indicated weak correlation (p=0.006). Finally, participants who reported to have received previous training on PE for cancer patients scored significantly higher (p=0.020) Conclusion and Implementation: The study has successfully assessed the current knowledge level of oncology nurses on PE benefits for cancer patients. The statistical treatment of data has demonstrated the correlations between the dimensions explored. The study result will incorporate evidence-based guidelines on PE for cancer patients into formal education programmes to be implemented as strategy.