Questionnaire helps shape program
Questionnaire helps shape program
When staff at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore designed the teaching protocol for the outpatient mastectomy program, they tailored it to the needs of patients. How do they know? They monitor the program with a post-op patient questionnaire distributed six months after surgery.
From the answers on the questionnaire, staff learned that patients wanted information on support groups for patients and family members, so that information was incorporated into the teaching, says Mary Donnelly-Strozzo, CRNP, MPH, MS, nurse practitioner at the Johns Hopkins Breast Center. Also, they learned that patients wanted a list of sources throughout the state where they could purchase wigs, hats, a prosthesis, and cosmetic supplies during treatment.
To help shape the program, women were asked to rate the following on a scale of one to five:
• the preparation before the operation for how you would feel afterward;
• how complete the information was about the possible benefits or harm of the different types of breast cancer surgery;
• how well informed you were about the psychological and social problems caused by breast cancer and its treatments.
Patients are also asked questions about the sensitivity of the staff with whom they came in contact. The staff who work at the Breast Center and the home care nurses are required to take a course to help them understand the psychological and emotional issues related to breast removal. It entails an hour lecture about common feelings patients with breast cancer have and how to communicate appropriately with women who have the disease. "Staff might offend a patient with inappropriate sympathy. Patients don’t need to have someone feel sorry for them. They don’t necessarily have a deadly disease. Every patient has a good chance of surviving," says Donnelly-Strozzo.
In addition to the lecture, staff are asked to listen to tapes that explain the purpose of the Breast Center and give the viewpoint of a breast cancer survivor.
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