Teaching cancer principles to undergraduate students.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. Most of the United States population will have some exposure to cancer during their lifetime. Medical knowledge becomes more advanced daily. Rapidly expanding knowledge specific to cancer etiology, diagnosis, and treatment is no exception. The consumer is at risk of misunderstanding this information at the time of the crisis because of the emotional, physical, and financial involvement. Gaining knowledge about cancer prior to such involvement may allow a better understanding if cancer care is required in the future. The Honors Oncology Course titled Learning to Live with Cancer was developed at the College of Nursing at Brigham Young University. It was developed to teach nursing and non-nursing students basic cancer principles, provide information regarding diagnosis and treatment of the disease, and allow students to work with cancer patients in the community to understand the impact of cancer on the patients, families, significant others, and the community at large.