The Influence of Easy-to-Read Pamphlets About Self-Care Management of Radiation Side Effects on Patients' Knowledge

Abstract

In addition to written patient information, oncology nurses should use innovative teaching strategies to improve patient understanding and self-care behaviors. A need exists for continued nursing inquiry that will focus on self-care behaviors to manage radiation side effects, particularly for patients with low literacy.

Improving cancer patients’ knowledge about totally implantable access port: a randomized controlled trial

“…However, evidence supporting the effectiveness of only written patient education materials in improving health literacy is not sufficient, since several studies used a nonexperimental design [12] or turned out inconclusive [13].…”

Effects of Interactive Pictorial Education on Community Dwelling Older Adult's Self Efficacy and Knowledge for Safe Medication

“…On pictorial cards, the text of instructions was written in a large, bold font (14-point), to accommodate the expected functional health literacy levels and eyesight (Lin, Neafsey, & Strickler, 2009;Wilson, Mood, & Nordstrom, 2010) In addition, questions were provided for all items and presented potential self-medication dilemmas. The answers were selected by choosing cards labeled as O or X.…”

The Breast Cancer Patient Navigation Kit: Development and User Feedback

“…The intention of the review was twofold: to complement the existing written information by customizing the information that our institution provided and to avoid duplication of what was already available. An important finding from this showed that the reading level for many booklets and documents was at grade 11 level or higher rather than the recommendation of current literacy standards at grade 6 to 8 levels [14,15].…”

“…What became evident in the review of available written tools at our institution was that many of the information tools were not addressing literacy levels. In fact, many tools were found to be at a literacy level of grade 11 or higher rather than a grade 8 level, as recommended when the tool is mediated or assisted by another person [14,15].…”