Effect of Health Educational Program on the Performance of Home Caregivers of Children with Cancer about Side Effects of Chemotherapy

Background: Children and families impacted by cancer generally face debilitating, unpleasant, and often difficult-to-manage symptoms. Symptom management is a basis of potentially preventable complications (ppc), which supports the need for early incorporation of ppc. Aim: assess the effectiveness of health educational program on the performance of home caregivers of children with cancer about side effects of chemotherapy. Research Design: A Quasi-experimental research design was utilized in this research. Subjects: Included a purposive sampling of 124 home caregivers of children with cancer at pediatric outpatient clinic at Sohag Oncology Institute in Sohag City. Tools of data collection: Two tools included Tool I: A structured Interviewing Questionnaire Sheet (demographic data of the home caregivers and their children, home caregiver's knowledge on side effects of chemotherapy), Tool (II): observational checklist to assess the skill of the home caregivers of children with cancer. Results: The majority of the studied caregivers (88.7%) had poor knowledge while only (2.4%) of them had good knowledge before health educational program compared to fifty-six percent of them (56.5%) had good knowledge after implementation of health educational program. A statistically significant difference was present between the pretest and posttest scores of the caregiver total knowledge and practice regarding the side effects of chemotherapy. Conclusion: Caregivers' knowledge as well as practices related to the side effects of chemotherapy were enhanced after the implementation of health educational program. Recommendations: Oncology nurses and experts should think about creating instructional booklets for caregivers to reference various kinds of cancer and treatment methods.