Oncology nurses’ knowledge, practice, and confidence toward chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy in Jordan

OBJECTIVES: To assess the knowledge, practice, and confidence of oncology nurses toward chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) among patients with cancer in Jordan. METHODS: Descriptive, and cross sectional study was conducted on a convenience sample of 148 Jordanian registered oncology nurses recruited from a Specialized Oncology Center in Jordan. Data collection took place in June, 2015. As a data collection tool, the assessment of oncology nurses’ knowledge and practice-revised questionnaire was used. RESULTS: The mean CIPN knowledge score of 8.98/16 (SD=1.9) indicated that there were knowledge deficits regarding CIPN among Jordanian oncology nurses. Only 58.8% of the subjects indicated that CIPN assessment is necessary for their oncology practices, but the majority rated their CIPN assessment skills as inadequate. Neurologic physical assessment usually is not included in practices assessment. In addition, 57.1% believed that CIPN was a significant problem for patients and their families. CONCLUSION: There is a significant requirement to enhance the neurological assessment skills of oncology nurses and an efficient approach to CIPN assessment is demanded. Creating guidelines to manage and assess CIPN, and further investigations in different health institutions to generalize the results across Jordan are highly needed.