Effects of Telephone Follow-up on the Self-Care Performance for Cancer Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy and Role Stress of Family Caregivers / 기본간호학회지

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: This study was conducted from January to March, 2004 to examine the effect of telephone follow-up on the performance of self-care in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and on role stress of family caregivers. METHOD: Research design was a nonequivalent control group non-synchronized design. Seventy-two participants were assigned to either the experimental group (18 cancer patients, 18 family caregivers) or the control group (18 cancer patients, 18 family caregivers). Data were collected before and after the intervention and were analyzed with paired t-test, t-test, Mann-Whitney U Test & Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test. RESULTS: Performance of self-care in the experimental group undergoing telephone follow-up was significantly higher than that of the control group (t=8.016, p=0.000). Role stress of family members in the experimental group was also significantly higher than that of the control group (t=2.133, p=0.042). CONCLUSION: This results suggest that the telephone follow-up is effective for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and their family caregivers. Telephone follow-up can be recommended as an effective nursing intervention for self-care performance in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and to reduce role stress of family caregivers.