Difficulties Experienced by the Human Resources Staff and Information Assessed as Useful in Supporting Working Cancer Survivors

This research was a cross-sectional study conducted to assess the difficulties faced by and identify requisite information for the human resources staff in supporting cancer survivors to balance between treatment and work. In 2011, we asked each of the 704 occupational health nurses (OHNs), certified by the bureau of occupational health nurses in the Japan Society of Occupational Health, to hand-deliver a questionnaire to one human resources staff with whom they are collaborating. Eighty-one human resources staff participated in this survey, of whom 33 had experience supporting cancer survivors.More than three-fourths of the participants had some difficulties deciding ‘How to interact with the family of an employee diagnosed as having cancer.’ In three questionnaire items including ‘Specific considerations required at the workplace by region of cancer’ (p=.006), ‘Specific considerations required at the workplace by cancer treatment method’ (p=.045), and ‘When and how to cooperate with the occupational health staff’ (p=010), participants with experiences as support survivors rated the usefulness of prior information significantly lower than those without such experiences.The results of this study can be utilized as the primary evidence in evaluating various aspects of support issues, such as those regarding changes in the degree of difficulty felt by human resources staff.