Patient and Family Education about Cancer: Our Journey from Theory to Practice

Background: Informational support can be regarded as an important aspect of caring for cancerpatients. This type of support is expected to be taken into serious account by healthcare providers.Moreover, Patient’s education is also considered to be one of the most crucial roles andresponsibilities of nurses. However, numerous organizational barriers have made it quite difficult inorder to provide the patients with organized education, especially for outpatients and their families.On the other hand, due to the chronic nature of cancer, patients face various problems at each stageof cancer development, such that, at the stage of diagnosis, diagnosis and prognosis anxiety can beviewed as common problems for these patients. As the treatment begins, the prognosis anxiety maydiminish, however, the side effects of treatment and other associated problems can generally stay asource of great anxiety for cancer patients. Therefore, cancer patients have distinct informationalrequirement at different stages of their treatment, which makes their training rather more difficultand complicated .Nursing faculties and their board members, as the scientific body of nursing, canundoubtedly assist the cancer patients in order to eliminate these obstacles and provide high-qualityeducation.Method: health education clinic of Ghaem Hospital, in the form of collaboration between theFaculty of Nursing and Midwifery and this hospital, has been operational since September 2017.The main objective of this clinic is to develop education programs for outpatients and their families.In addition, training for cancer patients is carried out once week in this clinic. The differentprocesses of setting preparation; policy and guideline development; defining patient referralprocedures; coordinating with doctors in order to synchronize the training, preparation ofeducational materials, and registration forms were carefully performed in anticipation of the officialopening Results: Obstacles such as the distance between the clinic and the hospital where chemotherapydrugs are injected, increased waiting times for patients, and family concerns about the unintendeddisclosure of the patient diagnosis were among the most major challenges facing the patients andtheir family education. Nevertheless, in order to overcome these barriers, strategies such attendingat the patient’s bed during chemotherapy to encourage them to visit the clinic, full participation ofthe patient main caregiver in the educational process, provision of printed materials along with ahandwritten manual from the faculty member for the patient were implemented. Furthermore,essential educational materials were meticulously arranged in the form of three training sessions foreach treatment regimen. The first session mainly focused on reducing patient and family anxiety,the general introduction of chemotherapy, post-chemotherapy diet, and vital preventive measuresagainst infection. Based on the patient medicine diet, the next sessions primarily focused on selfcare methods in order to manage the most important side effects of the drugs and Problem-solvingmethods in order to cope with the complications of chemotherapy. Finally, to record the training, anelectronic registration form was designed and incorporated which included basic information,diagnostic information, treatment protocol, chemotherapy complications during the previoussession, training materials provided, recipient of the training, and evaluation of the trainingoutcome.Conclusion: Physical problems of cancer patients have largely limited their regular participation inthe educational sessions. Utilizing motivational methods for higher participation of patients, aswell as the use of strategies such as telephone prevention services are on the agenda of this clinic.