Benefits of Effective Communication in an Oncology Setting Source: Banerjee, S., Manna, R., Coyle, N., Shen, M., Pehrson, C., Zaider, T, . . . Bylund, C. (2016). Oncology nurses’ communication challenges with patients and families: A qualitative study. Nurse Educ Pract, 16(1), 193-201. doi:10.1016/j.nepr.2015.07.007.

The current research article is qualitative in nature. It is primarily exploratory research. The main purpose of qualitative research is to understand underlying opinion and reasons. It provides a deeper understanding of a phenomenon. Whereas, quantitative research is basically a research where the problem is quantified. Numeral data is generated which is analyzed to get comprehensive results. Data collection methods in qualitative research consist of unstructured or semi-structured techniques. A few common methods are interview method, focus groups and observation method. The sample size is usually small to get a better insight into the targeted phenomenon. However, in quantitative research, the sample size is relatively large. It makes use of survey method. The survey method can include any kind of survey whether paper, online, mobile and kiosk surveys. It also includes interviews, systematic observation and longitudinal studies (DeFranzo, 2011).

Identifying the Phenomenon

The current research in focus was conducted in hospital setting. The main purpose of the study was to understand the challenges faced by oncology nurses in effective communication with their patients having cancer in discussing death,...

It focused on human experiences in natural setting and the phenomenon is relevant to nursing and health. 121 inpatient nurses working at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in United States participated in the study.
Structuring the Study

Research question

Yes, the research question specifies the need to study the challenges faced by oncology nurses in effective communication in large cancer hospital. The study mainly focused on challenges relevant to empathic communication and EOL care issues. Yes, there is a clear indication of the participant group and place in the research question. The participants group is oncology nurses working at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in United States.

The research method used in the study was survey method. The nurses were asked to fill an anonymous online pre-training survey. The main focus of the survey was to gain understanding of the challenges faced by inpatient oncology nurses. Potential nurse participants were selected by nurse leaders to participate in one of 13 communication skills trainings. Two weeks before the training, all nurse participants received invitation and were asked to complete an online survey. Quantitative and qualitative questions were included in the measures. Two –open ended questions were asked from the nurses to gain understating about the specific communication challenges they face. The questions were “What are the challenges in communicating empathically with your patients?”…