Patients' informational needs while undergoing brachytherapy for cervical cancer

To identify informational needs of South African women receiving intracavitary brachytherapy for locally advanced cervical cancer as part of a process to develop guidelines for quality patient-centred care.

A prospective, qualitative study with a phenomenological approach.

Brachytherapy Unit, Department Oncology, Universitas Hospital, Bloemfontein, South Africa.

Purposive sampling was utilized to recruit patients undergoing brachytherapy for cervical cancer from July to December 2012.

Semi-structured, one-to-one interviews were conducted, guided by a theme list. Audio-recorded interviews were conducted in Sesotho, Afrikaans and English by an unaffiliated, multilingual interviewer. The interviews were transcribed, translated and thematic analysis performed.

Data saturation was achieved having interviewed 28 participants, aged 30-73 years. Four themes with sub-themes were identified: (i) informational needs, (ii) patient disposition towards treatment, (iii) psychological experience and (iv) physical experience. Findings on patients' informational needs were the overarching theme and form the focus of this article. These informational needs included: providing patients with disease- and treatment-related information in their home language; adequate information concerning possible side-effects, sexual intercourse and pre-treatment preparation; and providing patients with informative material as standard procedure.

The article has identified women's informational needs providing a focus for patient-centred care. Providing patients with sufficient and understandable information could lessen feelings of fear and anxiety towards treatment delivery. Guidelines with a patient-centred approach could thus be developed to be used as a tool to assist members of multidisciplinary teams in providing quality care to this group of women.