Oncology nursing forum
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Although fatigue is a frequent complaint of patients undergoing cancer treatment, specific self-care activities are seldom addressed in patient education materials. To fill this void, a patient education tool was developed, with a special emphasis on the management of fatigue. Testing is under way with a large population of patients with cancer.
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This study investigated the reading level estimates of cancer clinical trial consent forms from actively accruing studies at the Medicine Branch and the Clinical Pharmacology Branch of the National Cancer Institute. Forty-four consent forms were analyzed using the SMOG formula. ⋯ The usefulness of consent forms could be improved significantly by using readability formulas, applying rewriting techniques, and being aware of subjects' comprehension levels. This paper suggests a number of strategies that nurses can use to enhance comprehension of the information contained in informed consent documents.