Quality of life has become an important gauge for evaluating healthcare outcomes. Provider's cares 'for cancer and its treatment' have been front- runners in the evaluation of quality of life, recognizing the need to assess outcomes more broadly than tumor response and length of survival. This study has been conducted to improve the quality of life for patient with cancer undergoing chemotherapy, this will be achieved through designing, implementing and evaluating the educational program. The study hypotheses; 1) the study subjects could have improvement quality of life and physical capabilities in performing their daily living activities.2) Reducing the severity of side effects related chemotherapy.3) providing supporting activities including psychological support for both patients and families. The study was conducted in the clinical oncology unit and outpatient clinic of Benha Teaching Hospital. The study subject included 50 adult patients. The tools of data collection were 1) a patients' assessment sheet was constructed by the researcher, 2) the scale was adopted from Ferrel &Grant (2003) that developed to assess the impact of cancer on the quality of life of cancer patients, 3) karnofsky self- care activities performance,4) Proposed management program. The results showed slightly improvement in patient's quality of life after one month from giving the educational program, while after three months there were general improvements in all dimensions of quality of life; physical, psychological, social, and spiritual status. The study concluded that all patients under chemotherapy need to improve knowledge about chemotherapy before starting the course of treatment for overcoming on side effects of the chemotherapy. The study recommended are there is need to plan and conduct an in service training program to the chemotherapy nursing staff about their role in controlling side effects of chemotherapy, which is necessary for the continuously advancing care for oncology patients, using the educational program by all chemotherapy units' out- patients' clinics and in- patients unit, through a simple booklet, and pamphlets with updated knowledge and instructions about chemotherapy. |
