Goals of work: To assess the level at which patient chemotherapy education needs are being met by the health-care team in an outpatient clinic setting and to identify any unmet needs regarding patient chemotherapy education.
Patients and methods: A questionnaire comprising 17 questions was developed to evaluate patient preferences regarding chemotherapy education. In the clinic, patients were offered a copy of the questionnaire with a cover letter describing the study.
Main results: A total of 282 questionnaires were completed, and 190 respondents had previously received chemotherapy. Of the 165 respondents who were previously treated at our institution, 66.7% (110) had received some form of chemotherapy education specifically from our clinic. The majority of all respondents (86.8%) reported that they preferred to receive information about their chemotherapy via written materials and/or through a conversation with a health-care professional. Regardless of the source of information, 62.6% of respondents (119) felt they were provided with adequate information about their chemotherapy treatment, and 42.4% reported that they would like more information about their chemotherapy.
Conclusions: The current practice in our clinic is to provide patients with written information about their chemotherapy that is reviewed with a health-care professional. The data revealed that our current practice is consistent with our patients' preferences. However, this survey did identify new information that patients want to know about chemotherapy, such as how chemotherapy works, why chemotherapy stops working, and drug-drug as well as drug-food interactions. This information will be incorporated into future patient education materials.