Evaluation of the effect of education on exercise of self-care agency given to the patients with total laryngectomy

Self-care is defined as the activities performed by the individual in order to protect the health, life and the goodness of the individual. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of education on self-care agency of patients with total laryngectomy. The sample of our study planned as semi-experimental was composed of two groups of patients as 50 controls and 50 experimental cases treated at Otorhinolaryngeology Service in Balcalı Hospital of Çukurova University Faculty of Medicine. "Patient Identification Information Form", "Patient Pre Test-Final Test Form", "Self-care Agency Scale", "Special Periodic Education Plan for Patients", and "Visuel Analog Scale" form to detect patient satisfaction had been used. After Balcalı Hospital of Çukurova University Faculty of Medicine permissioned of the hospital management and Çukurova University Ethics Committee, this study was made between March 2011 and December 2015. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 17.0 for Windows. When we group self-care agency scale from bad to good according to control and experiment group patients, we determined that 8% of experimental group were mediate, 14% were good, 78% were very good; while 22% of controls were bad, 68% mediate, 8% good and 2% were very good (p=0.0001). Initial standard of knowledge of both groups were detected to be equivalent to each other. However, a statistically significant increase in the standard of knowledge of educated experimental group was detected (p=0.0001). As a result of this study, the mean score of self-care agency for control group patients was 76.5±15.3; while the mean self-care agency score of experimental group patients was measured as 120.0±12.2 (p=0.0001). It was detected that the education provides a statistically significant difference. The results of this study indicated that, the education given to the patients is effective, the standard of knowledge patients about treatment and care was significantly increased as well as the self-care agency and satisfaction of them were increased significantly. Key words: Nursing, Patient Education, Larynx Cancer, Self-Care Agency, Total Laryngectomy