Patient education at a distance

Historically, education of patients was paternalistic where people have been conditioned to do as the "doctor" tells them. Traditionally this worked as people tended to have limited access to knowledge of treatment regimen available. However, in the information age, this knowledge is more readily available and it is now common practice to educate people diagnosed with cancer about their treatment and disease process. In fact, dissemination of information is now an intrinsic part of cancer care.

The primary aim of this study was to investigate the practice of patient education for gynaecological cancers treated with brachytherapy and review the feasibility of designing a distance learning information tool to inform patients about a clinical treatment option available to them in the cancer agency.

The study was divided into two parts. Part 1 was a review of adult learning principles and clinical application. Part 2 explored the feasibility of moving from face-to-face to distance learning in this situation.

Adaptation of clinical patient education from a face-to-face learning situation to distance education could be very successful if the basic principles of adult education and facilitation are followed and special care given to maintaining open lines of communication/support for the distant patient.