Boosting Oncology Nurse Confidence Key to Better Cancer Patient Sleep Management

Approximately 60% of cancer patients experience sleep disturbances, significantly impacting their quality of life and treatment outcomes. New research published in the European Journal of Oncology Nursing highlights the importance of incorporating explicit confidence-building strategies into educational programs for oncology nurses to improve sleep management training.

Study Design and Findings

Researchers from Turkey conducted a cluster randomized controlled trial involving 142 clinical care nurses across nine hospital wards. Participants were assigned to either an interactive e-book group (n=75) or a traditional education group (n=67). Both groups received training based on Brief Behavioral Treatment for Insomnia (BBTI), an established evidence-based management theory.

The study assessed knowledge acquisition, confidence enhancement and learning satisfaction at baseline and one week post-intervention using validated instruments. Results showed that both training methods led to significant improvements in nurse confidence (e-book: d = 0.51; traditional: d = 0.36), with no significant difference between the groups (P=0.263). However, knowledge gains were modest in both groups.

Confidence as a Mediator

Learning satisfaction was high in both groups, with 83% in the e-book group and 81% in the traditional education group reporting satisfaction. Importantly, the study revealed that confidence significantly mediated the relationship between knowledge and satisfaction (indirect effect = 0.051, 95% CI [0.006-0.096]), accounting for 24.5% of the total effect.

Implications for Nurse Education

The findings suggest that interactive e-books and traditional methods are comparably effective for foundational BBTI training. However, the limited knowledge gains emphasize the need for multi-component training programs that go beyond brief theoretical instruction. The researchers concluded that educational programs should prioritize explicit confidence-building strategies.

“Interactive e-books offer scalable alternatives when traditional training is impractical,” the study authors noted.

About the Study

The research was conducted by a team of investigators in Istanbul, Turkey, across nine hospitals. The study participants were 171 nurses working in oncology units and administering cytotoxic drugs. The study was designed as an analytic descriptive survey, and data was collected using a questionnaire developed by the investigators to determine working conditions of oncology nurses. More details about the study’s methodology and findings can be found on PubMed.