Education program for cancer patients and families.

Abstract

57 Background: Studies of patient education and communication have been shown to affect patient health outcomes, including emotional and physical health. Effective patient education is challenged by limitations in patient literacy. As much as 20% of the American population was found to have a low literacy level at or below a 5th grade reading level. Our program was based in a public hospital treating underserved patients from lower socioeconomic backgrounds who often have low baseline health literacy and varying educational backgrounds. Methods: A cancer patient education program was organized for recently diagnosed cancer patients and their families. A lecture and interactive learning session was implemented to teach the basics of what cancer is, what chemotherapy is, social services available to patients, and counseling services available. A pre- and post-survey was administered to assess patients’ confidence in their understanding of cancer, chemotherapy, navigation of social and counseling services. Patients self rated their level of understanding as “poor”, “a little”, “average”, “good”, or “very good”. Results: Comparison of pre- and post-survey results showed self-assessed improvement of understanding of cancer, chemotherapy, social services, and counseling services by more than one level of understanding (1.29, 1.37, 1.18, 1.14 level of understanding improvement respectively). Conclusions: A patient education program for cancer patients teaching the basics of cancer and chemotherapy as well as giving patients and families resources for social services and counseling services is a very necessary resource. Better patient understanding of health issues may improve compliance with treatments, help alleviate anxiety, and enable patients and their families to participate actively in their care. This need is especially felt in a hospital treating an underserved population. Survey results show an improvement in patient self-assessed understanding of cancer, chemotherapy, and social services.