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Knowledge and skills of outpatients with cancer
BACKGROUND: Elevated temperature can be the first sign of infection; obtaining an accurate temperature in patients undergoing chemotherapy is critical.
OBJECTIVES: This study sought to determine outpatients' temperature-monitoring knowledge and skills; whether an educational DVD could increase knowledge; and the level of agreement between a home thermometer and a calibrated hospital thermometer.
METHODS: The intervention was an educational DVD. Patients completed a survey and were observed taking their temperature. Investigators rated whether the correct steps were taken and then obtained the temperature. The bias and precision of the patient's thermometer were determined.
FINDINGS: Knowledge scores averaged 68%. Most participants correctly identified elevated temperatures for fever (91%); less than 50% correctly identified other signs of infection, and less than 25% correctly identified activities that could falsely elevate or depress temperature readings.
KEYWORDS
oral digital thermometer; educational DVD; home thermometer accuracy
THE ROUTINE MEASUREMENT OF BODY TEMPERATURE is an important aspect of monitoring for signs of infection in patients receiving chemotherapy (Reigle & Dienger, 2003). Infections may occur in a variety of body systems, and although the signs and symptoms of each type of infection are different, elevated temperatures occur in many infections and are often the first sign of infection.
Clinicians often assume patients have a thermometer at home that accurately measures temperature, know situations that could falsely alter temperature measurements, and have the skill to use the device properly. A review of patient chemotherapy education studies found that none included content related to proper use of the device itself or situations that affect temperature accuracy (Gao & Yuan, 2011; Prutipinyo, Maikeow, & Sirichotiratana, 2012; Smith et al., 2015). Patient surveys about self-care behaviors reported only one question related to fever ("When is it necessary to contact a physician for a fever?"), with 30% of respondents stating they would not notify a physician if they had a fever (Prutipinyo et al., 2012). No questions were related to the number representing fever, how to measure temperature, frequency of temperature monitoring, or if patients had a thermometer at home.
The knowledge and skills to self-monitor temperature have not yet been studied in patients receiving chemotherapy. However, several studies in the 1990s and 2000s evaluated the knowledge and skills of parents...