• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.11 no.12
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• pp.4935-4944
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceived difficulties during both pre-treatment period and admission period for radioactive iodine therapy (RAIT), the level of information about RAIT provided by medical staffs and the satisfaction of RAIT process in thyroid cancer patients receiving RAIT. Participants were 165 thyroid cancer patients, who had total thyroidectomy and had been offered RAIT. The data were collected using structured questionnaire and open-ended questions and analyzed by descriptive statistics and content analysis. The most frequent perceived difficulties of RAIT was associated with thyroid specific symptoms during both pre-RAIT period and RAIT admission period(38.2% vs 43.0%). The rating of RAIT information provided by medical staffs was evaluated as over moderate level(mean $3.63{\pm}0.80$). The RAIT process satisfaction was investigated as moderate level(mean $6.43{\pm}2.21$). the satisfaction of RAIT was the highest in medical attention and coping procedure (mean $7.64{\pm}2.37$) however it was the lowest in adequacy of RAIT information(mean $5.67{\pm}2.78$). Thus the nursing intervention program for thyroid cancer patient undergoing RAIT should be developed to support needs of thyroid cancer patients related to thyroid specific symptoms and to improve patients' understanding about RAIT procedure so that patients have competence to participate in therapeutic activities efficiently.