Empowering patients and caregivers with knowledge: The development of a nurse-led gynecologic oncology chemotherapy education class

At a Canadian cancer centre, rising patient volumes made it difficult to provide quality chemotherapy education to patients and families in the clinical setting. The gynecology oncology site identified several barriers to the provision of timely and comprehensive teaching. These barriers included receiving education after learning of a cancer diagnosis, the efficacy of written information, time constraints nurses experienced, and absence of standardized side effect management. This prompted an interdisciplinary team to review current teaching practices and engage the Patient Education Program to collaboratively develop strategies to overcome these challenges. This paper describes the development of a nurse-led chemotherapy education class tailored to patients with gynecologic cancers and focused on common chemotherapy treatment protocols. The purpose of the class was to help patients and caregivers know what to expect during their chemotherapy routine, lower anxiety, and to equip them with knowledge and skills to manage side effects of treatment.