The Health Education Needs of Patients Requiring Anaemia Treatment

A Roche

Kings College Hospital, London

Problem: Treatment for renal anaemia often employs long term costly multiple medication strategies. Current literature supports the need for effective education programmes for patients to optimize outcomes of treatment. However, to date these programmes have been developed from issues identified by healthcare professionals rather than being patient led.

Purpose: To identify the health education needs of patients requiring treatment for renal anaemia. It is intended that the findings of this study will inform the development of a needs based education programme for future patients referred for anaemia treatment.

Design: A qualitative methodology using symbolic interactionism was employed to examine the experiences of patients who have been established on treatment programmes for renal anaemia. An indepth interview was conducted to allow patients to report their experiences of being anaemic, along with their reactions to their diagnosis, investigation and treatment. The findings were assessed using sequential thematic analysis of transcribed interviews. Data collection was continued until saturation was achieved.

Findings: From the transcriptions of nine indepth interviews, twenty four health education needs were identified which were categorized into five health education themes. The health education themes were adaptation, knowledge, information delivery, professional support and practical management.

Conclusion: Based upon an extensive literature review, this appears to be the first study to identify the health education needs from the perspective of patients with renal anaemia. The health education needs as identified from the patient perspective within this study do reflect those prescribed in the literature by healthcare professionals.

Relevance: Identifying health education needs from the patients’ perspective provides the basis for developing an education programme for patients requiring treatment for anaemia fostering the philosophy of a patient-centered service.