ecancermedicalscience

Special Issue

Oncology nursing in the Global South during COVID-19

9 Dec 2021
Julia Challinor, Maria Fernanda Olarte Sierra, Kathryn Burns, Annie Young

In mid-2020, a call was made to oncology nurses in the Global South to share their experiences managing patient care during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Eighteen submissions were received from 16 countries across Latin America, Africa, Europe and Asia. Three were research-based and 15 were personal narratives on the psychosocial impact of COVID-19 on the nurses, colleagues, patients and families. Three narratives were from oncology nurses working with cancer-related non-governmental organisations locally or, in one case, internationally. A simultaneous literature search for publications (including grey literature) was performed to identify themes of COVID-19’s impact in these 16 countries and specifically on oncology nurses and patients/families. Four themes were identified: a) interruptions to care; b) support/resource shortages; c) psychosocial impact on nurses and patients and d) staffing and nursing role impacts. The three research-based studies describe oncology nursing in-depth efforts to explore the impact of COVID-19. Findings in the 15 narratives are briefly presented according to the four themes identified in the literature. Due to the severe shortage of physician adult and paediatric oncology specialists, oncology nurses in the Global South often shoulder much of the care for patients with cancer and even more so during COVID-19 with attendant oncology nursing shortages due to reassignment to COVID-19 units. It is important to hear from these critical members of the oncology nursing workforce who often lack the time, resources or training to publish in peer-reviewed journals in English, particularly in the middle of a pandemic. Giving voice to these nurses documents the reality of their work and ability to continue to provide care despite the chaos and rapidly changing guidelines and government action. Lessons learned by these nurses to improve mental health and psychosocial support of the nurses as well as their patients/families will be essential for the next global pandemic.

Related Articles

Julia Palma, Sofía Aljaro, Daniela Arce, Milena Villarroel, Federico Antillón, Luiz Lopes, Nataly Mercado, Adriana Morais, Andrés Portilla, Leonardo Arana, Guillermo Chantada, Mónica Cypriano, Soad Fuentes, Augusto Pereira, Lourdes Vega, Nubia Zuñiga, Liliana Vásquez, Andrea Capellano, Paola Friedrich
Anjali Rathee, Priyanshi Dixit, Surya Kant Tiwari, Mukul Aggarwal, Pradeep Kumar, Rishi Dhawan, Richa Chauhan, Jasmita Dass, Ganesh Kumar Vishwanathan, Tulika Seth, Manoranjan Mahapatra
Ariel Cherro, Laura Aresca, María Susana Ciruzzi, Alejo Agranatti, María Fernanda Montaña, Cynthia Frahne, Jaqueline Cimerman
Grace M Ferri*, John F Murphy*, Akash Oza*, Alexander J B Bulteel, Wafaa Abbasi, Rachel Anderson, Mehmed Taha Dinc, Eva Gaufberg, Kayra Cengiz, Sainikhil Sontha, Janice Weinberg, Patrick Kurpaska, Yashvin Onkarappa Mangala, Matthew Kulke, Umit Tapan
Gemma E Aburn, Rima Saad Rassam, Ximena Garcia-Quintero, Marta Salek, Andrea Cuviello, Yadurshini Raveendran, Sri Andini Handayani, Chen Chen Sun, Su Yadana, Sally Blair, Megan Doherty, Min Sun Kim, Zhou Xuan, Marianne B Phillips, Lee Ai Chong, Gayatri Palat, Donna Drew, Justin N Baker, Poh Heng Chong, Julia Downing, Michael J McNeil