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Parents' experiences on handling paediatric anticancer drugs at home after an educational intervention
Ranaa Akkawi El Edelbi1,2, Staffan Eksborg1,2, Ulrika Kreicbergs1,3
1Department of Women's and Children's Health, Childhood Cancer Research Unit, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Insights
Parents handling oral anticancer drugs (OADs) at home reported reduced stress and improved daily life after an educational intervention. They need continued, individualized support from healthcare professionals for safe drug management.
Area of Science:
- Paediatric Oncology
- Patient Education
- Home Healthcare
Background:
- Home-based care for paediatric cancer patients increases the burden on healthcare professionals to train parents in safe oral anticancer drug (OAD) handling.
- Parents face challenges in understanding drug handling instructions while managing their child's cancer diagnosis.
- Sweden lacks standardized methods for educating parents on correct OAD handling at home.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore parents' experiences with handling OADs at home following an educational intervention.
- To assess the impact of an educational program on parents' knowledge and confidence in managing paediatric cancer medications.
Main Methods:
- An educational intervention was implemented to enhance parents' knowledge of OAD handling.
- Fifteen parents of children with cancer participated in qualitative interviews.
- Verbatim interview transcripts were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.
Main Results:
- Parents reported relieved stress, increased awareness of drug exposure, and facilitated daily routines.
- The educational intervention led to mixed emotions but improved understanding of correct drug handling.
- Parents emphasized the need for early, practical training and individualized support from healthcare professionals.
Conclusions:
- The educational intervention shows promise for improving how healthcare professionals inform and educate parents on complex topics like OAD handling.
- Standardized, multi-modal educational approaches can empower parents in managing paediatric cancer treatment at home.
- Ongoing, personalized support is crucial for parents administering OADs to their children.
Background:
The shift of treatment of paediatric cancer patients to include more care at home puts a lot of pressure on health care professionals (HCPs) to prepare and train parents on safe and correct drug handling at home. Parents must take in and understand the information presented to them while coping with their own fear related to their child's cancer diagnosis. In Sweden, parents are expected to handle and manipulate oral anticancer drugs (OADs) in the home setting. There is however a lack of a standardized method to inform and educate parents on how to handle OADs in a correct way at home.
Aim:
To describe parents' experiences of handling OADs at home after participating in an educational intervention.
Method:
Educational intervention in the present study aimed to improve parents' knowledge in key concepts that is, handling OADs at home by using information presented in different forms. Fifteen parents to 12 children with cancer were recruited from a paediatric oncology ward in Sweden to participate in an interview. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and subjected to qualitative content analysis.
Results:
Parents' experiences are presented in categories: Relieved stress, Awareness of own exposure, Facilitated my everyday life, Parents need continued support individually. The educational intervention resulted in both positive and negative feelings, increased awareness of drug exposure and correct drug handling at home. Practical training and information presented in different ways facilitated the process of drug handling. To handle the drug correctly at home parents requested to be trained and informed in the beginning of their child's oral drug treatment. In addition, parents requested to be individually approached by HCP to get answers to questions and concerns.
Conclusions:
This educational intervention study shows promising results for the method used by HCPs to inform and educate parents on complicated topics such as handling OADs at home.
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