The effectiveness of an educational program on nurses dealing with leukemic children : A comparative study

Abstract EN

Background : Leukemia is one of the most serious problems in children.

It's considered the most common form of childhood cancer.

It occurs more frequently in male than female, with the peak onset between 2-6 years.

In the National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, ALL represents 23.

3 % of all pediatric malignancies and 75 % of pediatric leukemia.

In Oman the increasing number of leukemic children is growing concern in the medical field.

According to the censes 2005 the incidence of leukemia among Omani children are 23.

4 %.

Children suffering from malignant diseases may experience a variety of secondary problems.

So these children have special needs that are different from those of healthy age mates.

Therefore, the nurses need to be equipped with certain competencies in order to give a high standard of nursing care that the leukemic children needs.

Aims : To assess the actual performance of nurses in Oncology Units, and evaluate the impact of constructed program on nurse's performance and leukemic children progress.

Methods: The study was conducted at Hematology / Oncology Units in Pediatric Department, Tanta university Hospital (Egypt) and New Sohar Hospital (Oman).

All leukemic children admitted during 2007- 2008, with the total number of Sixty children from Tanta hospital, their age range 2-6 years and thirty children from Sohar Hospital (age range 1-14 years) .

Both groups under chemo-therapy and radiotherapy and subjected to routine hospital care.

Ten nurses from Tanta hospital and 22nurse from Sohar hospital were included in the study.

Data was collected in four phases: initial, developmental, educational and evaluation phase.Tools included: Interview questioner's sheet, observation check list for nurses, Child health file and Anthropometric measures for children.

Results: The result of this study before the program revealed that: Nurses performance was unsatisfactory and they got score less than 70 %.

While after program implementation, the result shows improvement in nurse's performance as well as in the leukemic children progress.

Conclusion : Nurses working in Hematology/Oncology Unit are in an urgent need to strict intervention program aimed at promoting optimal adjustment and to control or at least decrease recurrence of complications in leukemic children.