Video-, Audio-, and Computer-Mediated Education of Patients and Relatives in Gynecologic Cancer Care: A Systematic Review.

Abstract

Cancer patients can often experience emotional distress, and gynecologic cancer patients may be among the most distressed. As hospital stays become shorter, nurses are challenged to educate patients and relatives adequately. The use of computer-based technologies may alleviate the situation. This article aims to review the literature related to the use of audio-, visual-, or computer-based technologies to support healthcare professional training of adult female patients and their close relatives in gynecologic cancer care. We describe to what extent these technologies were found to be effective and evaluate clinical implications. PubMed, EMBASE and PsycINFO via Ovid, CINAHL via EBSCO, and the Cochrane Library were searched, and 4177 unique references were examined. All studies evaluating healthcare professional training of women with gynecologic cancer and/or their relatives via audio-, visual-, or computer-based technologies were included. We found scarce and conflicting evidence of benefits to gynecologic patients of healthcare professional use of video- or computer-based patient education. These interventions might be best suited to the highest educated with coping skills beyond the average. No studies were found to include relatives or found to test audio-based patient education. More rigorously produced and reported studies of healthcare professional training initiatives for gynecologic cancer patients and their relatives are recommended. Measures used to capture the perceived benefits to patients might be reconsidered. Precautions should be taken before recommending technologies that are unevaluated in own context. Attention must be on both what is provided when and to whom.