Educating Leukemia Patients

Abstract

With the aim of training medical students who do a rotating internship at the Solca Hospital in Guayaquil for the treatment of patients with leukemia, a qualitative study was carried out using the Participatory Action Research methodology. Leukemia patients and medical students were defined as units of analysis. The research was developed in four phases: detection and diagnosis of the practice of medical students who carry out the rotating internship and their way of communicating with patients diagnosed with leukemia, the communicational aspects, the elaboration of a plan to introduce the change, the implementation of such a plan and evaluation of results. Three instruments were designed and validated to be used in this stage in two phases, a pre-test and a post-test; and feedback, through plenary sessions. The results showed that the students had to delve into the content on the type of leukemia, symptoms, causes, diagnosis and treatment of each type. In addition, it was necessary at this stage to teach soft, social and sociological skills, especially to deal with patients with this type of pathology. It is concluded that patients are willing to improve or change their life routine if the diagnosis related to leukemia is communicated to them assertively.