Abstract
Background: Radiation therapy is a type of cancer treatment that uses intense beams of energy to kill cancer cells. Radiation therapy often uses X-rays, but protons or other types of energy can also be used. It may be used as the primary treatment for cancer or combined with surgery, chemotherapy and/or hormonal therapy. Most types of cancer can be treated with radiation in some way.
Objectives: Assess the knowledge of nurses concerning radiotherapy complications
Methodology: A descriptive-analytic study was conducted in the Middle Euphrates Oncology center, In order to obtain accurate data and a representative sample. The study sample is a non-probability (purposive) sample was selected. The sample consisted of (30) nurses those who working in the Middle Euphrates Oncology center. Content validity of the study questionnaire, which was distributed among (12) experts who have not less than (5) years of experience in the field, instrument stability of (test-retest) was determined after done by the pilot study on (10) patients, with the reliability of (r = 0. 96), which is statistically acceptable.
Results: the result showed the level of education of the nursing faculty was (46.7%). Regarding, the majority of the study sample was age group within the (23 - 30) years (83.3%), with mean and standard deviation equal to mean ± SD 27.63 ± 5.84. The gender majority of the study sample was male and female (50.0%). Concerning (53.3%) of them, have you participated in training courses about radiotherapy. Moreover, don’t training; the majority of the study sample was single (56.7%). Also don’t training; the results showed that most of the study samples were (56.7%) somewhat sufficient.
Conclusion: The overall assessment of the nurse's knowledge of radiotherapy complications in the Middle Euphrates Oncology center has a highly significant association with their age. They should be oriented to educational programs (especially oncology hospitals) for all new nurses, and they should implement activities to update their knowledge and design training programs outside the country.