Investigation of Cancer Patients' Information Sources, Information Needs and Expectations of Health Professionals

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study is to investigate cancer patients' information sources, information needs and expectations from health care professionals.

Methods: This is a descriptive study. The most commonly used cancer blog users in Turkey participated in the study. The sample of study consisted of 120 cancer patients. Patients' expectations from health care form, which was composed by investigators based on literature, was used for data collection instrument.

Results: While 82.5% of the participants obtained disease-related information from physicians, 70.8% obtained it from the internet. However, 97.5% of the patients wanted to get information from physicians, and 39.2% wanted to get information from nurses. Of the patients, 19.2% considered the medical staff's communication with patients as sufficient, 45.8% as partially sufficient, and 35.0% as insufficient. The patients expected physicians to provide information about the disease and treatment, to understand them to communicate with them better, to provide emotional support, to be helpful during the decision-making process about the disease and treatment, to respect them and to allocate more time to listen to them. The patients expected nurses to understand them, to respect them, to communicate with them better, and to provide better care and emotional support. The patients wanted the healthcare professionals to inform them about treatment and its side effects, the probability of recurrence of the disease, the effects of the disease on their psychological state, prognosis, duration of the treatment and what the disease is and what causes the disease.

Conclusion: It is important to give information and support to the patients at all stages of disease. To determine information needs and requirements of the patients and to plan education can reduce the anxiety of patients during treatment process. Health care personnel must pay more attention to communicate with patients in the care of cancer patients. In addition, health professionals should be aware of the information sources used by patients.