Poster Presentation
Monday, November 14, 2005
The Effect of Easy-to-Read Chemotherapy Instruction on Knowledge and Self-Care
Carole A. Pepa, PhD, RN1, Peggy S. Gerard, DNSc, RN2, Jane A. Walker, PhD, RN2, and Janet Landrum, MS, RN3. (1) College of Nursing, Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, IN, USA, (2) School of Nursing, Purdue University Calumet, Hammond, IN, USA, (3) The Methodist Hospitals, Inc, Gary, IN, USA
| Learning Objective #1: Describe the scope and consequences of low health literacy |
| Learning Objective #2: Identify differences between easy-to-read and traditional chemotherapy medication instructions |
The Institute of Medicine (2004) identifies that over 90 million adults in the United States have difficulty understanding and acting upon health information. While there is a developing awareness that patient education materials need to be written in an easy-to-read format, a large discrepancy exists between actual reading ability and reading levels of patient education materials. Although there are many guidelines for designing easy-to-read materials, relatively few studies have been conducted to directly examine the impact of redesigned materials on patient understanding and the ability to act on the information. The purpose of this ongoing study, therefore, is to examine the impact of redesigned, easy-to-read materials on patient comprehension, self-care activities, and satisfaction. Orem's Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory guides this two-group experimental study. Trained nurses recruit outpatients receiving initial chemotherapy at oncologists' offices. Consenting participations are randomly assigned to receive either customary chemotherapy instructions or easy-to-read instructions designed for this study. Data are collected at three points in time: initial office visit when patients receive the chemotherapy information, three days after the initial visit, and one month later. At initial contact, participants are asked demographic questions and the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM) is administered. At the three day call back, satisfaction with the chemotherapy information received is measured using a researcher developed questionnaire. Comprehension is also measured using a modification of Dodd's chemotherapy knowledge questionnaire. A modification of Dodd's Self-Care Behavior Log is used to measure self-care activities after one month. Data collection is ongoing. Data will be analyzed using descriptive statistics, including chi-square and t-test analysis. A two-way analysis of variance will examine the impact of educational materials on study outcomes. Findings will have implications for nurses who provide patient education.
The research is funded by a grant from the Wheat Ridge Foundation.