Difficulties faced by the nursing university student in the assistance to the cancer patient in supervised internship

Objectives: to identify whether the 8 semester university students in Nursing feel prepared to provide assistance to the patient with cancer; describe the difficulties experienced by these university students when providing assistance to the patient with cancer; discuss the implications of the assistance to the patient with cancer in the context of the undergraduate course in Nursing. Method: this is a descriptive, exploratory and qualiquantitative approach study with categorical thematic analysis, starting from the following guiding questions: "Do the 8 semester Nursing university students feel prepared to provide assistance to the patient with cancer?"; "Which difficulties are noticed by the 8 th semester Nursing university students when providing assistance to the oncologic patient?"; and "How can this reality be changed in the scene of the Nursing undergraduate students?". The data collection was carried out through a questionnaire, with the signing of the free and informed consent ter m by 33 Nursing university students from a private college in the town of Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, under the CAAE 0032.0.226.00010 and approved by the Research Ethics Committee of EEAN/UFRJ, through the Opinion 050/2010. Results: theoretical-practical dichotomies were observed in the teaching-learning process, which caused insecurity and difficulties to the provision of a comprehensive assistance to the oncologic patient. Conclusion: it was shown that the inc lusion of oncology in the curricular schedule of the course concerned could contribute to minimize the deficiencies identified, aiming to improve the teaching quality and the training of the prospective nursing professional to provide the population with an adequate health assistance . Descriptors: nursing; oncologic nursing; oncology.