Discussion
cancer
CANCER, DISEASE
With the current health care burden and the shortage of nursing personnel, nursing staff are unable to allocate sufficient time to instruct patients. Only limited nursing guidance is feasible in current clinical settings. Accurate radiotherapy-related self-care education is a key duty of nursing staff. The research findings were as expected in light of the well-known advantages of multimedia tools for education. These include the capability to observe progress, increased learning attractiveness, and good usability for patients with a low literacy level [Significant between-group differences were observed in patient comprehension. The results indicated that the comprehension of the control group increased from 10.9 to 79.1% and the comprehension of the experimental group increased from 24.8 to 98.5% (Pretest and posttest comprehension assessment resultsAnalyses of each item indicated differences in educational level, marital status, and residence status; however, some of these differences were nonsignificant. Patients with only an elementary school education exhibited lower disease-related self-care knowledge than did those with a higher education level. Regarding marriage and residence status, unmarried, divorced, widowed, and single patients exhibited higher disease-related self-care knowledge. This finding may be ascribed to patients needing to independently deal with both serious and trivial matters and patients without a spouse needing to pay greater attention to their personal affairs. Many findings cannot be adequately explained; further research is required to investigate cause and effect. For questions 4, 5, and 6, the multimedia textbook group had a higher correct answer rate in the pretest and posttest. The control group reported lower correct answer rates than did the experimental group (Table Radiotherapy self-care assessmentAlthough multimedia videos and recordings can improve the effectiveness of health education, they cannot completely replace psychological support and comfort with patients in this study were satisfied with the general health education provided by nurses. In total, 99% of respondents from the two groups agreed that the nurses had a friendly attitude when they taught; thus, they indicated acceptance of traditional health education. This could explain why the leaflet group reported higher levels of agreement than the multimedia group for the statement “The nurse practitioner was patient and listened to my concerns.” (Fig. Satisfaction with the health education of nursing educatorsMultimedia should be incorporated into routine clinical processes to help patients with cancer improve their self-care ability and recover smoothly, to improve patient satisfaction with the quality of clinical care, and to establish a win–win effect between nursing and disease. Different health education models should be applied for the convenience of patients from different ethnic groups.