Congress Abstracts 2006

167

TIMING OF CHEMOTHERAPY TEACHING: RESULTS OF A PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT STUDY. Cathy Fortenbaugh, RN, MSN, AOCN^®, Kim Consalvo, RN, BSN, OCN^®, and Ann Vale, Pennsylvania Oncology Hematology Associates, Philadelphia, PA; Mary Pat Lynch, RN, MSN, CRNP, Joan Karnell Cancer Center at Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia, PA; and Barbara Matthews, RN, OCN^®, Pennsylvania Oncology Hematology Associates, Philadelphia, PA.

Receiving a diagnosis of cancer and undergoing subsequent treatment is often a stressful and frightening time for patients and their families. Increased anxiety makes it difficult to comprehend and process teaching. In order to combat these obstacles, nurses instituted standardized patient teaching guidelines to facilitate learning and promote safety. These included identifying patients by first and last name before beginning treatment, ensuring that patients received and read the chemotherapy teaching binder The Patient Companion before the first chemotherapy visit, had the opportunity to have any questions answered, verbalized an understanding of the chemotherapy agents they would be receiving, and addressing discharge instructions.

The purpose of the survey was to evaluate the effectiveness of the timing, and quality of the content of chemotherapy teaching.

50 patients receiving chemotherapy completed a questionnaire eight months after implementing the teaching guidelines. The patients who participated in the survey were not receiving their first treatment, biological therapy alone, or part of a clinical trial. They were asked nine yes or no questions about the safety and educational information they received from their oncology nurses. Participants were also asked two additional questions about the timing of teaching and ways nurses could improve the treatment education process.

The survey results were overwhelmingly positive. For seven of the nine questions, over 85% of patients responded that they had received the teaching and could discuss their chemotherapy agents. All 50 patients were satisfied with the teaching process and timing of teaching. Areas for improvement included a process for discharge teaching for patients who received treatment on multiple days in the same week and patients who received treatment for an extended period of time.