Abstract
The process and technicalities of radiation therapy (RT) for cancer treatment can be challenging for patients to understand as RT involves complex procedures, highly specialised equipment, and radiation itself has limited sensory characteristics. Hence, it is imperative that education programs are specifically planned and developed to suit the needs of patients, address radiation as an entity and include salient visual aids. In this context, the Virtual Environment for Radiotherapy Training (VERT) system, primarily created for RT practitioner simulation, may provide unique opportunities for patient education. This article reports on patient feedback of a newly developed breast cancer patient education program, which integrates the VERT system as the focal education tool. The education program content included RT immobilisation, simulation, planning and treatment components, along with an introduction to the VERT system. Nineteen breast cancer patients (n = 19) completed an evaluation questionnaire at the completion of their VERT education program. Open-ended questions were used to detect the least and most useful aspects of the education session. Patient feedback indicated a high regard for the comprehensiveness of the education program, with particular acknowledgement of the three dimensional visual features of the VERT system. It is proposed that VERT’s high visual impact should be exploited in tailored patient education programs in order to obtain maximum patient engagement and make significant gains in effective knowledge transfer.
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Acknowledgements
Study participants’ travel reimbursement was funded by The University of Sydney’s postgraduate research support scheme. The primary author is the holder of a University of Sydney research scholarship, “Danielle Milinkovic Memorial Radiation Therapy Research Scholarship”. The authors wish to thank Drew Latty and Wendy Sharp for their input and feedback on the education program and Rachael Beldham-Collins for her assistance in the co-ordination of the project. We also extend our gratitude to all the patients and support persons who participated in the VERT education program.
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Ethics approval for this study was granted by the Human Research Ethics Committees from The University of Sydney and the Western Sydney Local Area Health Service. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
All procedures performed in studies involving human participatns were in accordance with ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Jimenez, Y.A., Wang, W., Stuart, K. et al. Breast Cancer Patients’ Perceptions of a Virtual Learning Environment for Pretreatment Education. J Canc Educ 33, 983–990 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-017-1183-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-017-1183-x