Authors (including presenting author) :
Law SN (1), Liu CW (1), Lee KC (1), Sit YW (1), Fok SF (1), Wong SY (1), Law KC (1), Lee CC (1), Chan WC (1), Lam HY (1), Tsang WY (2)
Affiliation :
(1) Department of Oncology, United Christian Hospital (2) Department of Medicine and Geriatrics, United Christian Hospital
Introduction :
United Christian Hospital is expanding oncology services by phases and foreseeing a steady increase service demands. Empowering patient on disease specific knowledge is critical to prevent possible complications and alleviate anxiety. Therefore, we designed a patient empowerment programme for oncology patients.
Objectives :
1. To enhance patient’s knowledge, skills, attitude, self-awareness and ability of self-management in side effects of chemotherapy 2. To help patients to explore and develop inherent capacity to be responsible for their own health 3. To assess patients in a timely manner for potential complications that require further evaluation or hospital admission
Methodology :
First, nurses attended the training session about the symptom management of chemotherapy and communication skills, which delivered by experienced nurses. Second, telephone follow up have been scheduled to those patients whose newly started their intravenous chemotherapy treatment in the subsequent week. Patients would be asked about symptom management, medication compliance, psychosocial problems and self-care management and hence provided patient education via telephone follow-up. If the patient raised up serious complications regarding chemotherapy, we will refer to oncologists in a timely manner. Third, educational poster and pamphlet have been designed to introduce important cautions of Chemotherapy Day Centre and common side effects regarding receiving intravenous chemotherapy. Upon the first attendance on intravenous chemotherapy, we will provide patient education on individual basis, and allow patient to raise concerns regarding chemotherapy. Fourth, a nurse consultation hotline has been established to receive patient’s enquiries during office hours.
Result & Outcome :
Telephone follow-up was finished on 101 patients from March to September 2020 and 51 patients were invited to attend a post-questionnaire. They satisfied with the information given by nurses (Mean: 4.28, S.D. 0.64, 2.13-5) and understood the important cautions of Chemotherapy Day Centre and side effects of chemotherapy (Mean: 4.31, S.D. 0.51, 3.17-5). Among those follow-up, 14 patients required urgent consultations by oncologists and required hospitalisation. After implementation of nurse consultation hotline, we received 5-10 calls daily and total 246 calls between March to September 2020. The most frequent reason a patient called the hotline is to report symptoms (67%, 165/246) or clarify questions about plan of care or treatment (20%, 50/246). Among those calls, 12 patients required urgent consultations by either oncologists or A&E doctors. Conclusion - The empowerment programme is found feasible and provide valuable information for further study - We will enhance telephone follow-up sessions into three times: before starting chemotherapy, subsequent week and 3 weeks after first intravenous chemotherapy as well as oral chemotherapy - Provide standardised guidelines for nurse on symptom management, and adopt risk assessment in later phase.
