Creating a Healthy Practice Environment: A Call to Action for Oncology Nurses

When nurse researcher Marlene Kramer published Reality Shock: Why Nurses Leave Nursing in 1974, her seminal work launched a national discussion related to the distress felt by many baccalaureate-prepared novice nurses about leaving the academic setting and transitioning to the clinical setting. In particular, Kramer (1974) highlighted conflict between the values these new nurses had been taught in school and the reality of practicing as a professional nurse in a clinical setting. For example, in an educational setting, nursing students may focus on one or two patients at a time, whereas in the clinical setting, nurses must practice simultaneously with multiple patients with varied and numerous health deficits. This conflict is felt acutely by novice and experienced oncology nurses who are tasked with providing quality physical care, as well as emotional care and support to patients with cancer and their families
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