Application of online courses combined with teach-back method to laryngectomy patients and family carers

Objective·To explore the effect of online courses combined with the teach-back method among patients with laryngectomy and their family caregivers.Methods·Convenience sampling was used to select patients with laryngectomy treated in the Department of Otolaryngology, Shanghai Changhai Hospital from July 2022 to June 2023 and their family caregivers. The participants were divided into a control group and an observation group using the random number table method. The intervention was conducted in two different wards. General information of the two groups of patients and caregivers was collected. After admission, the control group watched offline videos recorded by the department. The videos introduced laryngocarcinoma-related knowledge and standard procedures of airway stoma care, suctioning, nasal feeding, etc., which were divided into 4 sessions with 30 min each. The patients watched one session per week. The observation group watched the same videos (8 lessons) online on their own after admission, while the nursing staff used the teach-back method for health education, consolidating 2 lessons once a week, 45 min/session for 4 weeks. The effectiveness of the intervention was evaluated by using Caregiver Preparedness Scale (CPS), Family Caregiver Task Inventory (FCTI), and Chinese Quality of Life Instruments for Cancer Patients-Head and Neck Cancer (QLICP-HN) at baseline (1st week), before discharge (4th week), and one month after discharge (8th week), as well as the incidence of adverse events during home care.Results·The study included a total of 120 pairs of patients and caregivers, with 60 pairs in each group. Five pairs in each group were excluded due to various reasons, leaving a total of 55 pairs in each group. There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in terms of general information of the patients and the caregivers, QLICP-HN scores of the patients, and CPS and FCTI scores of the caregivers at baseline (P>0.05). Before discharge and 1 month after discharge, the CPS scores of the caregivers and the QLICP-HN scores of the patients in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group, and the FCTI scores were significantly lower (lower scores indicating better nursing care), with statistically significant differences (P<0.05). Within 1 month after discharge, the incidence of adverse home care events in the observation group was lower than that in the control group (5.5% vs 29.1%), and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05).Conclusion·The online courses combined with the teach-back method help improve the readiness to care and caregiving competence of family caregivers of post-laryngectomy patients, improve patients' quality of life, and reduce the incidence of adverse events during home care.