Implementing and Evaluating a Standardized New Diagnosis Education Checklist: A Report From the Children's Oncology Group

Abstract

When a child is newly diagnosed with cancer, parents report feeling overwhelmed with the amount of information that they must process in order to safely care for their child at home. The Children’s Oncology Group (COG) Nursing Discipline has focused on examining current practices for educating families of children newly diagnosed with cancer, and developing tools to enhance the process of patient/family education at the time of diagnosis, including development of a COG Standardized Education Checklist, which classifies education into primary, secondary, and tertiary topics. The COG Nursing Discipline awarded nursing fellowships to two doctorally prepared nurses practicing at two distinct COG institutions to evaluate the checklist implementation. This project addressed the primary topics on the checklist essential to safely care for the child at home following the first hospital discharge. Checklist feasibility was determined by the proportion of checklists completed. Checklist fidelity was determined by review of documentation on the checklist regarding educational topics covered, learner preferences, and methods used. Checklist acceptability was assessed through parent/caregiver and nurse feedback. Project implementation occurred over a 5-month period and involved 69 newly diagnosed families. Implementation of the checklist was feasible (81%), with moderate fidelity to checklist topics taught across the two sites. Verbal instruction and written documentation were the most prevalent form of education. The return rate for the parent/caregiver and nurse acceptability questionnaires was moderate to low (68% and 12%, respectively), parent/caregiver feedback was positive and acceptability among responding nurses was high, with 92% of nurses identifying the primary checklist as useful.

Evidence-Based Recommendations for Education Provided to Patients and Families Regarding the Adverse Events of ALK and MEK Inhibitors: A Systematic Review From the Children's Oncology Group

“…Adverse events are described by the FDA as undesirable experiences associated with the use of a medical product in a patient (FDA, 2016). The provision of anticipatory guidance allows the nurse the opportunity to provide information about medications and the recognition and management of adverse events as they arise (Duffy et al, 2021).…”

Children's Oncology Group 2023 blueprint: Nursing discipline

“…The checklist was subsequently implemented at two COG institutions and found to be feasible and acceptable in the clinical setting. 25 Robb et al 40 Docherty et al 38 Roll et al 39 Hendricks-Ferguson et al 41 Haase et al 42…”

“…To evaluate implementation of this checklist, an EBP fellowship was awarded to two doctorally prepared nurses. The checklist was subsequently implemented at two COG institutions and found to be feasible and acceptable in the clinical setting 25 . This project also yielded a standardized educational program for use by nurses to facilitate the provision of new diagnosis education.…”

“…A wide variety of nursing care issues has been addressed by the COG nursing EBP process to date 7,12–27 (Table 2). Additionally, the discipline's EBP projects have been widely disseminated to pediatric oncology nurses through presentations at COG meetings, and through the COG educational track sessions at annual APHON meetings.…”

Retention of discharge instructions using an interdisciplinary model for at‐risk children with cancer: A quality improvement initiative

“…Consensus recommendations from a Children's Oncology Group expert panel support a patient/family-centered approach to discharge planning, in conjunction with a team-based support network, allotting tasks to the most appropriate members of the healthcare team. 14,15 This recommendation is based on improved patient/caregiver satisfaction with standardized nursing discharge teaching [16][17][18] as well as when multiple healthcare providers are involved in anticipatory guidance and education. [19][20][21][22][23][24] Additional benefits include improved medication compliance, reduced medication errors, and cost savings.…”