Throughout the process of treating
cancer with cytotoxic drugs, nurses and other health care professionals must work
closely with patients and families to help them understand how cytotoxic drugs
work, what side effects might occur, and what to do about them should they occur.
The following are realistic goals for patient and family education.
The patient and family
are able to describe the chemotherapy protocol, including the name of the
cytotoxic drugs, route, method, schedule of administration, and schedule for
routine laboratory and physical exam follow up visits.
The patient and family
can list potential immediate and long-term side effects of the drugs used.
The patient and family
can describe self-care measures to decrease the incidence and severity of
complications of therapy.
The patient and family
can list symptoms that should be reported immediately to the health care team.
Education about symptom recognition should focus on signs and symptoms of
infection, e.g., temperature greater than 101, pain, swelling, redness, or
pus, nausea or vomiting that persists and is unrelieved by usual methods,
unusual bleeding or bruising, acute changes in mental or emotional status,
and diarrhea or constipation unrelieved by usual control methods.
The patient and family
can identify community resources to meet potential demands of treatment and
rehabilitation.
The patient and family
demonstrate competence in self-care skills required by the treatment, e.g.,
care of venous access devices, implanted ports, or intracavity catheters.
Medline has an excellent
patient and family education, interactive learning tool about chemotherapy.