BACKGROUND
Laryngectomy surgery is a life-changing intervention. Pre-operative psychoeducation is associated with improved patient satisfaction, reduced patient distress, reduced cost and length of hospital stay. Many laryngectomy patients report poor understanding of their surgery and expected long-term functional outcomes. We partnered with patients and clinical, multimedia and creative teams to create educational videos for patients undergoing laryngectomy.
METHODS
St James’s Hospital’s (SJH) Head and Neck SLT and Tracheostomy CNS teams partnered with:
1) Volunteer laryngectomy patients and the SJH Medical Illustration Unit to record self-care of stoma and tracheoesophageal puncture (TEP) sites
2) The National College of Art and Design (NCAD) and SJH Design Innovation Lab to create professional animations to complement these videos.
RESULTS
This unique partnership of various disciplines resulted in the successful creation of a series of self-care videos (vimeo.com/showcase/8603651), and an animated video explaining changes post-laryngectomy in simple terms (vimeo.com/831879536). The videos are freely available to be used at any point of the patient’s cancer journey, helping educate without medical jargon or complex anatomical images. We present these videos with qualitative data based on staff and patient responses.
CONCLUSIONS
Positive feedback has been received from service users and healthcare professionals, reporting reduced anxiety, improved knowledge and improved patient experience.
Deirdre Leavy 1 , Caoimhe Mulgrew 1 , Sorcha McManus 1 , Deirdre O’Grady 3 , Lydia Saturi 3 , Christopher Soraghan 2 , Sinead Roth 3 , Noreen O’Regan 1 , Conall Fitzgerald 4 , Paul Quinlan 5
1 Speech and Language Therapy Dept., St James Hospital, Dublin.
2 Design Innovation Lab/MPBE, St James Hospital, Dublin.
3 National College of Art and Design, Dublin, Ireland.
4 Dept. of Otolaryngology & Head and Neck Surgery, St James Hospital, Dublin.
5 Medical Illustration Unit, St James's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland