Skip to main content

Breast Cancer Patients’ Perceptions of a Virtual Learning Environment for Pretreatment Education

Journal of Cancer Education volume 33, pages 983–990 (2018)Cite this article

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.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

43,34 €

Price includes VAT (Finland)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Fig. 1

References

  1. Sundaresan P, Milross CG, Smith A, Evans A, Stockler M, King MT (2014) Factors influencing the use of RT in NSW: a qualitative study exploring consumer and health professional perspectives. Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Oncology 58(5):625–632. doi:10.1111/1754-9485.12198

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Miller KD, Siegel RL, Lin CC, Mariotto AB, Kramer JL, Rowland JH, Stein KD, Alteri R, Jemal A (2016) Cancer treatment and survivorship statistics, 2016. CA Cancer J Clin 66(4):271–289. doi:10.3322/caac.21349

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Halkett GKB, Kristjanson LJ, Lobb E, Little J, Shaw T, Taylor M, Spry N (2012) Information needs and preferences of women as they proceed through radiotherapy for breast cancer. Patient Educ Couns 86(3):396–404. doi:10.1016/j.pec.2011.05.010

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Morley L, McAndrew A, Tse K, Rakaric P, Cummings B, Cashell A (2013) Patient and staff assessment of an audiovisual education tool for head and neck radiation therapy. J Cancer Educ 28(3):474–480. doi:10.1007/s13187-013-0489-6

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Smith SK, Yan B, Milross C, Dhillon HM (2016) Radiation therapy for people with cancer: what do written information materials tell them? European Journal of Cancer Care 25(4):675–685. doi:10.1111/ecc.12366

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Siekkinen M, Leino-Kilpi H (2012) Developing a patient education method—the e-knowledge test with feedback. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics. doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-101-4-1096

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Goguen J (2016) Health literacy and patient preparation in radiology. Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences 47(3):283–286. doi:10.1016/j.jmir.2016.06.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Lewis SJ (2015) Finding my own voice through the breast cancer journey: humour, sadness and smurfs. Journal of Medical Radiation Sciences 62(1):82–85. doi:10.1002/jmrs.92

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Phillips, Roger, James W. Ward, and Andrew W. Beavis .2005. Immersive visualization training of radiotherapy treatment. In: Conference proceedings: Medicine Meets Virtual Reality 13: The Magical Next Becomes the Medical Now, ed. James D. Westwood, 111:390–396

  10. Bridge P, Appleyard RM, Ward JW, Philips R, Beavis AW (2007) The development and evaluation of a virtual radiotherapy. Comput Educ 49(2):481–494. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2005.10.006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Bridge P, Crowe SB, Gabriela G, Ellemor NJ, Hargrave C, Carmichael M-A (2016) A virtual radiation therapy workflow training simulation. Radiography 22(1):e59–e63. doi:10.1016/j.radi.2015.08.001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. James S, Dumbleton C (2013) An evaluation of the utilisation of the virtual environment for radiotherapy training (VERT) in clinical radiotherapy centres across the UK. Radiography 19(2):142–150. doi:10.1016/j.radi.2012.11.008

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Stewart-Lord (2016) From education to research: a journey of utilising virtual training. J Radiother Pract 15(1):58–90. doi:10.1017/S1460396916000030

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Boejen A, Bloch-Larsen L, Poulsen RL, Seiersen K (2011) Patient education in 3D—“this is how radiation therapy is done”. Radiother Oncol 99:S42–S43. doi:10.1016/S0167-8140(11)70234-1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Leong A, Pavic M, Winter C (2013) Integration of a 3D virtual radiation therapy environment system for clinical patient education. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 87(2):S489. doi:10.1016/j.ijrobp.2013.06.1292

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Sule-Suso J, Finney S, Bisson J, Hammersley S, Jassel S, Knight R, Hicks C, Sally S, Lam K-P, Belcher J (2015) Pilot study on virtual imaging for patient information on radiotherapy planning and delivery. Radiography 21(3):273–277. doi:10.1016/j.radi.2015.02.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Stewart-Lord A, Brown M, Noor S, Cook J, Jallow O (2016) The utilisation of virtual images in patient information giving sessions for prostate cancer patients prior to radiotherapy. Radiography 22:269–273. doi:10.1016/j.radi.2016.05.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Jimenez Y, Wang W, Stuart K, Latty D, Sharp W, Lewis S (2016) Shining the light on developing patient centered radiation therapy education using a virtual learning environment. Journal of Medical Radiation Sciences 63:76. doi:10.1002/jmrs.1_166

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Cancer Institute NSW. 2016. EviQ cancer treatments online. https://www.eviq.org.au/. Accessed 29 November 2016

Download references

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.

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, Lidcombe, NSW, Australia

    Yobelli Alexandra Jimenez, Steven Cumming & Sarah Lewis

  2. The Crown Princess Mary Cancer Centre, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, NSW, Australia

    Wei Wang & Kirsty Stuart

  3. School of Physics, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    David Thwaites

Authors
  1. Yobelli Alexandra Jimenez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Wei Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Kirsty Stuart
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Steven Cumming
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. David Thwaites
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Sarah Lewis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yobelli Alexandra Jimenez.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

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.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

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

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-017-1183-x

Keywords

  • VERT
  • Radiation therapy
  • Patient education
  • Breast cancer