Internet based patient pathway as an educational tool for breast cancer patients

Meaningful Text: Total Hip Replacement Patients’ Lived Experience of a Nursing Care Plan Written in Lay Language

Background:

Person-centred care involves respecting patients’ experiences, preferences, and needs, as well as sharing information with them and involving them in care planning. Scant research has been conducted on how it influences patients to have direct access to their care planning when it has been established through the use of standardised care plans or pathways. In the orthopaedic ward in which this study was conducted, a standardised nursing care plan for total hip replacement patients (THR), which was originally written in professional language, was rewritten in lay language and used as peri-operative teaching material for this patient group.

Study Aim:

To explore the meaning THR patients ascribe to the lived experience of reading and retaining their standardised nursing care plan in lay language during their hospital stay.

Methods:

The data collection and analysis followed a method adapted by the Vancouver School of Doing Phenomenology. Data were collected through 12 in-depth interviews with six THR patients.

Results:

The main finding was that the participants acquired knowledge from the text of the care plan that was understandable and meaningful, as evidenced by the empowering impact it had on them. This impact included improved psychological wellbeing, more open communication, and the provision of a tool to keep track of care. Some revisions of the care plan were recommended.

Conclusion:

The study suggests that a patient version of standardised care plans can act as an important educational tool for THR patients that can empower them to manage their health situations.

Instruments for Patient Education: Psychometric Evaluation of the Expected Knowledge (EKhp) and the Received Knowledge of Hospital Patients (RKhp)

Purpose

In patient education, there is a need for valid and reliable instruments to assess and tailor empowering educational activities. In this study, we summarize the process of producing two parallel instruments for analyzing hospital patients’ expectations (Expected Knowledge of Hospital Patients, EKhp) and received knowledge (Received Knowledge of Hospital Patients, RKhp) and evaluate the psychometrics of the instruments based on international data. In the instruments, six elements of empowering knowledge are included (bio-physiological, functional, experiential, ethical, social, and financial).

Patients and Methods

The original Finnish versions of EKhp and RKhp were tested for the first time in 2003, after which they have been used in several national studies. For international purposes, the instruments were first translated into English, then to languages of the seven participating European countries, using double-checking procedure in each one, and subsequently evaluated and confirmed by local researchers and language experts. International data collection was performed in 2009–2012 with a total sample of 1,595 orthopedic patients. Orthopedic patients were selected due to the increase in their numbers, and need for educational activities. Here we report the psychometrics of the instruments for potential international use and future development.

Results

Content validities were confirmed by each participating country. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the original theoretical, six-dimensional structure of the instruments. For some subscales, however, there is a need for further clarification. The summative factors, based on the dimensions, have a satisfactory internal consistency. The results support the use of the instruments in patient education in orthopedic nursing, and preferably also in other fields of surgical nursing care.

Conclusion

EKhp and RKhp have potential for international use in the evaluation of empowering patient education. In the future, testing of the structure is needed, and validation in other fields of clinical care besides surgical nursing is especially warranted.

Spinal Stenosis Patients' Visual and Verbal Description of the Comprehension of Their Surgery

BACKGROUND

Spine surgery patients have difficulty comprehending the patient education aimed at preparing for surgery.

PURPOSE

To assess the effect of a specific preoperative education approach (Knowledge Test Feedback Intervention, KTFI) on patients' verbal and visual understanding of their surgery.

METHODS

In this randomized controlled trial, the intervention group (n = 50) went through the KTFI and routine education, whereas the control group (n = 50) received only routine patient education. Written description of the surgical procedure and drawing of incision were used as outcome measures at baseline, at hospitalization, at discharge, and 3 and 6 months after surgery.

RESULTS

At baseline, half of the participants showed verbal and visual understanding of their surgery. During follow-up, understanding improved significantly with no statistically significant differences between the groups.

CONCLUSION

Spinal stenosis patients' understanding of their surgical procedure is imperfect. Patient educators need to ensure patient learning by evaluating comprehension outcomes.

An e-health strategy to facilitate care of breast cancer survivors: A pilot study

AIM

Innovative e-health strategies are emerging, to tailor and provide convenient, systematic and high-quality survivorship care for an expanding cancer survivor population. This pilot study tests the application of an e-health platform, "Healthy.me," in a breast cancer survivor cohort at Liverpool and Macarthur Cancer Therapy Centres, New South Wales, Australia.

METHODS

Fifty breast cancer patients were recruited to use the Healthy.me website, designed by the Centre of Health Informatics at the University of New South Wales, over a 4-month period. Telephone and online questionnaires were used at 1 and 4 months and a face-to-face feedback at study completion, to gather qualitative and quantitative data regarding feasibility of Healthy.me.

RESULTS

Healthy.me was reported to be a useful online resource by most users. Usage declined from 76% at 1 month to 48% at 4 months. Breast cancer survivors enjoyed a variety of tailored information regarding health and life-style issues. Positive aspects of Healthy.me were the convenient access to trusted information, and interaction with their peers and healthcare professionals. Barriers to usage contributing to usage decline were lack of reported patient time to re-access information, limited content updates and technical factors.

CONCLUSIONS

This pilot study suggested the potential of an e-health strategy such as Healthy.me in addressing the needs of a growing breast cancer survivor population. Ongoing development of a more robust e-health resource and integration with primary care models is warranted.

Development and Evaluation of an Educational E-Tool to Help Patients With Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Manage Their Personal Care Pathway

BACKGROUND

An overload of health-related information is available for patients on numerous websites, guidelines, and information leaflets. However, the increasing need for personalized health-related information is currently unmet.

OBJECTIVE

This study evaluates an educational e-tool for patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) designed to meet patient needs with respect to personalized and complete health-related information provision. The e-tool aims to help NHL patients manage and understand their personal care pathway, by providing them with insight into their own care pathway, the possibility to keep a diary, and structured health-related information.

METHODS

Together with a multidisciplinary NHL expert panel, we developed an e-tool consisting of two sections: (1) a personal section for patients' own care pathway and their experiences, and (2) an informative section including information on NHL. We developed an ideal NHL care pathway based on the available (inter)national guidelines. The ideal care pathway, including date of first consultation, diagnosis, and therapy start, was used to set up the personal care pathway. The informative section was developed in collaboration with the patient association, Hematon. Regarding participants, 14 patients and 6 laymen were asked to evaluate the e-tool. The 24-item questionnaire used discussed issues concerning layout (6 questions), user convenience (3 questions), menu clarity (3 questions), information clarity (5 questions), and general impression (7 questions). In addition, the panel members were asked to give their feedback by email.

RESULTS

A comprehensive overview of diagnostics, treatments, and aftercare can be established by patients completing the questions from the personal section. The informative section consisted of NHL information regarding NHL in general, diagnostics, therapy, aftercare, and waiting times. Regarding participants, 6 patients and 6 laymen completed the questionnaire. Overall, the feedback was positive, with at least 75% satisfaction on each feedback item. Important strengths mentioned were the use of a low health-literacy level, the opportunity to document the personal care pathway and experiences, and the clear overview of the information provided. The added value of the e-tool in general was pointed out as very useful for preparing the consultation with one's doctor and for providing all information on one website, including the opportunity for a personalized care pathway and diary. The majority of the revisions concerned wording and clarity. In addition, more explicit information on immunotherapy, experimental therapy, and psychosocial support was added.

CONCLUSIONS

We have developed a personal care management e-tool for NHL patients. This tool contains a unique way to help patients manage their personal care pathway and give them insight into their NHL by providing health-related information and a personal diary. This evaluation showed that our e-tool meets patients' needs concerning personalized health-related information, which might serve as a good example for other oncologic diseases. Future research should focus on the possible impact of the e-tool on doctor-patient communication during consultations.

Patient Education, Coaching, and Self-Management for Cancer Pain

Purpose

Multiple systematic reviews and meta-analyses have identified the effectiveness of patient education in improving cancer pain management. However, the mechanisms by which patient education improves pain outcomes are uncertain, as are the optimal delivery, content, timing, frequency, and duration. This review provides best-bet recommendations based on available evidence to guide service managers and clinicians in developing a patient education program.

Methods

We used patient-centered care, self-management, coaching, and a behavior change wheel as lenses through which to consider the evidence for elements of patient education most likely to be effective within the context of other strategies for overcoming barriers to cancer pain assessment and management.

Results

The evidence suggests that optimal strategies include those that are patient-centered and tailored to individual needs, are embedded within health professional–patient communication and therapeutic relationships, empower patients to self-manage and coordinate their care, and are routinely integrated into standard cancer care. An approach that integrates patient education with processes and systems to ensure implementation of key standards for pain assessment and management and education of health professionals has been shown to be most effective.

Conclusion

Patient education is effective in reducing cancer pain and should be standard practice in all settings. For optimal results, patient education should be integrated with other strategies for implementing evidence-based, person-centered care and overcoming barriers at the levels of patient, provider, and health system.

Clinical Pathway Analytics

Recently, medical informatics researchers have focused on supporting standardized activity coordination patterns that structure complex multi-disciplinary interventions. While the designed clinical pathways are aimed to improve the provided healthcare, this paper demonstrates that the care process of individual patients can significantly deviate from the standardized path. Examining the deviations in the individual care processes might result in the further enhancement of the provided quality of care, the evaluation of adverse events or the identification of suboptimal use of resources. This paper presents an optimal combination of process analytics for extracting valuable medical and organizational information from real-world care processes. The authors elaborate an extensive case study based on these process analytics on a series of oncological care processes.

The impact of an empowering Internet-based Breast Cancer Patient Pathway program on breast cancer patients' clinical outcomes: a randomised controlled trial

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the effect of the Breast Cancer Patient Pathway program on breast cancer patient's empowerment process.

BACKGROUND

The results of earlier studies indicate that the use of tailored Internet-based patient education programs increased patient's knowledge level; however, other outcome measures differed.

DESIGN

This randomised control trial studied the effect of the Internet-based patient educational program on breast cancer patients' empowerment. In this study, we measured the quality of life, anxiety and managing with treatment-related side effects as the outcomes of breast cancer patients' empowering process.

METHODS

Breast cancer patients who were Internet users in one Finnish university hospital during 2008-2010 were randomised to the control group (n=43) and the intervention group (n=47). Baseline data were collected first in the hospital and the following data seven times during the treatment process, the last time one year after breast cancer diagnosis.

RESULTS

There were no statistically significant differences in the quality of life, anxiety or side effects of treatment between the groups. The amount of treatment-related side effects was connected to both physical and psychological well-being.

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, the Breast Cancer Patient Pathway program did not decrease anxiety level or treatment-related side effects among breast cancer patients or improve subscales of quality of life when compared with controls.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

There is a need to relieve the side effects caused by patients' care with the help of patient education. Internet-based patient education programs need more focus when developing new patient education methods.

Knowledge tests in patient education: a systematic review

This study describes knowledge tests in patient education through a systematic review of the Medline, Cinahl, PsycINFO, and ERIC databases with the guidance of the PRISMA Statement. Forty-nine knowledge tests were identified. The contents were health-problem related, focusing on biophysiological and functional knowledge. The mean number of items was 20, with true-false or multiple-choice scales. Most of the tests were purposely designed for the studies included in the review. The most frequently reported quality assessments of knowledge tests were content validity and internal consistency. The outcome measurements for patient-education needs were comprehensive, validating knowledge tests that cover multidimensional aspects of knowledge. Besides the measurement of the outcomes of patient education, knowledge tests could be used for several purposes in patient education: to guide the content of education as checklists, to monitor the learning process, and as educational tools. There is a need for more efficient content and health problem-specific knowledge-test assessments.

Monitoring care processes in the gynecologic oncology department

The care processes of healthcare providers are typically considered as human-centric, flexible, evolving, complex and multi-disciplinary. Consequently, acquiring an insight in the dynamics of these care processes can be an arduous task. A novel event log based approach for extracting valuable medical and organizational information on past executions of the care processes is presented in this study. Care processes are analyzed with the help of a preferential set of process mining techniques in order to discover recurring patterns, analyze and characterize process variants and identify adverse medical events.