Congress Abstracts 2006

185

NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE FORMS PARTNERSHIP WITH HOSPITAL IN AMMAN JORDAN TO ESTABLISH PREMIERE CANCER CENTER IN MIDDLE EAST. Georgia Cusack, RN, MS, AOCN^® , DHHS-NIH, Bethesda, MD; Maria Decarvalho, RN, MS, AOCN^®, Genentech, San Francisco, CA; and Ahmad Al Khateib, RN, MSN, and Muna Aleco, RN, MSN, King Hussein Cancer Center, Amman, Jordan.

The King Hussein Cancer Center (KHCC) is a 128-bed hospital in Amman, Jordan. The primary mission of KHCC is to ensure the highest quality of care for cancer patients in the Middle East. The vision of KHCC is to achieve national distinction as a magnet environment embracing an evidenced-based practice model with an emphasis on professional practice, education, research, shared leadership, caring, and culture.

To establish the premiere training center in the region, the KHCC collaborated with nurses from the National Cancer Institute to provide education to nursing staff. The Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) Model was utilized to guide program development and evaluation.

The five-month program provided a group of nurses at KHCC with the knowledge and skills to deliver competent nursing care to patients according to oncology nursing standards. Nurses were instructed on how to perform a comprehensive nursing assessment of the cancer patients' physical, psychosocial, spiritual and educational needs. Case studies, class presentations, and unstructured seminar sessions were included as part of the didactic curriculum. Clinical logs provided a reflective journal of learning objectives and demonstrated how the student was meeting them, through analysis and evaluation of critical incidents, and generalization to potential future experiences. Education coordinators and students shared the responsibility for creating an educational climate that fostered mutual respect, integrity, intellectual inquiry, critical thinking, creativity and effective communication. NCI staff participated in policy and procedure development. Evaluation of the program included comparison of pre and posttests, module exams and clinical observation.

Overall the program was a great success. Seventeen of twenty nurses completed the program. The top seven nurses were provided with additional training in the United States. There was a 50% increase in median tests scores on posttest evaluation. Program strengths included an increased understanding of oncology concepts. Policy and procedure development provided guidelines for further development. Program limitations included initial language barriers and staffing shortages, causing staff to work long hours in addition to training.