Problem-solving cancer care education for patients and caregivers

PURPOSE: ti program evaluation was conducted to explore the potential effec ts of a 90-minute problem-solving education session for persons with advanc ed cancer and their families. DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM: Patients with advanced cancer and their families, w ho were visiting a tertiary-care outpatient setting, were invited to attend a 90-minute individualized educational session that taught basic problem-s olving principles using a cognitive-behavioral framework. Pre-education and posteducation data were collected about the confidence of participants in providing care, their feelings about being informed about resources, and th eir perceptions of their problem-solving ability. RESULTS: At baseline. most participants reported low confidence about their ability to provide cancer care and felt uninformed about community resourc es, but they viewed themselves as moderate-to-good problem solvers. Forty-t wo educational sessions were delivered to 49 caregivers and 40 patients. Tw o months later, participants reported feeling more informed about community resources and achieved higher posteducation scores for problem-solving abi lity, More caregivers than patients reported that reading The Home Care Gui de for Cancer made a great deal of difference in their approach to home car e. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Most educational sessions for families affected by c ancer focus on delivering information, not on building skills. These findin gs suggest that a one-on-one educational session that teaches problem-solvi ng skills can be successfully delivered in a busy clinic setting. Family ca regivers are especially likely to benefit from this program.