الفهرس 
Introduction & Aim of the StudyOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Radiation therapy is an important component of cancer control and treatment. With surgery, chemotherapy it is the most efficient curative technique in the management of most cancers. Radiotherapy is also very useful in symptom palliation in patients with locally or distant advanced cancer.Abdel-Wahab et al. (2013).
Radiation can be given alone or used with other treatments, such as surgery or chemotherapy. Radiation therapy can cause early and late side effects. Early side effects are those that happen during or shortly after treatment. They usually are gone within a few weeks after treatment ends as Skin changes, Fatigue, you may also have diarrhea, hair loss in treatment area, Mouth problems, Nausea and vomiting, Trouble swallowing Urinary and bladder changes. Late side effects are those that take months or even years to develop, late side effects may include infertility, joint problems, Lymphedema, mouth problems, and secondary cancer. They are often permanent (American Cancer Society, 2014).
Both children and parents have a need for preparation and information before radiation treatment starts. The importance of parental involvement before, during and after radiotherapy must not be under estimated. Parents can re-explain information, encourage and support their children as they go through their daily treatment with radiotherapy (Ångström-Brännström et al., 2015).
Aim of the study:
The Aim of this study was to assess awareness of mothers regarding to radiotherapy among their children having cancer, through:-
1- Assess mothers’ knowledge regarding to radiotherapy.
2- Recogniz mothers’ practice regarding care of their children receiving radiotherapy at Children’s Cancer Hospital (57357).
3- Assess child health needs and problems.
4- Assess child health status.
Research question:
1- Is there a relation between the mother’s knowledge about radiotherapy and the sociodemographic characteristics?
2- Is there a relation between the mother’s practice about radiotherapy and the socio demographic characteristics?
3- Is there a relation between the mother’s knowledge and practice regarding care of their children receiving radiotherapy?
Research design:
A descriptive design was utilized in the current study.
Research setting:
The study will be conducted at Out-Patient in radiotherapy department affiliated to Children’s Cancer Hospital (57357).where the hospital is being with the highest admission rate of children who received Radiotherapy and consider the largest center of radiotherapy in Egypt for children.
Research subjects:
A purposive sample will be comprised 143 children who represented 10% of all children receiving radiotherapy selected according to the research center of (57357) that reported the total number of children receiving radiotherapy during (2014, 2015) was 1430 children.
Inclusion criteria:-
1- Children with confirmed diagnosis with any types of cancer and receiving external radiotherapy from both genders, aged from 1 day up to 18 years.
2- Mothers accompanying their children.
Exclusion criteria:-
Terminally ill children.
Tools of datacollection:
I- A stracture interviewing questionnaire
It was developed by the investigator in the light of relevant references (American Cancer Society, 2015) (National Cancer Institute: Radiation therapy, 2016). And written in simple Arabic language and it consisted of four parts:
Part I:
Concerned with gathering data related to socio- demographic characteristics of the studied children and their mothers
Part II:
This part was concerned with data related to radiotherapy this part was subdivided into the following:
A- Mother’s knowledge regards radiotherapy.
B- Mother’s knowledge regards early side effects.
C- Mother’s knowledge regards late side effects.
Part III:
This part was concerned with data related to child needs and problems.
Part IV:
It concerning with mothers’ reported practice regarding care of their children receiving radiotherapy.
Second tool: Medical record:-
Pre and post radiotherapy assessment sheet (RAD) assessment utilized in CCHE (Radiotherapy Department) used to assess child health status. It consist of Four Parts:
Part I: It concerning with child vital signs and covers four items (Temperature, pulse, respiratory rate, blood pressure)
Part II: It concerning with child general condition and covers four items as level of consciousness, distress, skin color, activity tolerance
Part III: body mass index
Part IV: anaesthia
Pilot study:
Pilot study was carried out, involving 10% of the studied children and their parents (13 children and their parents) in the study sample to test the clarity and applicability of the study tools. The results of the data obtained from the pilot study helped in modifying the study tools where items were corrected, omitted and added as necessary. The pilot study sample was excluded later from thestudy.
Results: Findings of the current study can be summarized as thefollowing:
• The mean age of studied children was (8±4.4) and 26.2 % of them aged between 3 to less than 6 years.
• 57.7% of them were males.
• 70.8% lived in rural and 33.8% were enrolled in primary schools.
• 39.2% had the diagnosis of brain tumor.
• The mean age of the mothers was 32.3±6.4
• 38.5% of mother’s educational level was secondary school level.
• 92.3% of mothers were house wife.
• 66.2% of mothers’ knowledge regards radiotherapy were unsatisfactory and 33.8% of them their knowledge regards radiotherapy were satisfactory.
• 77.7% of correct mothers’ practice regards their children receiving radiotherapy were not done.and 22.3% of them their correct practice regards their children receiving radiotherapy were done.
• There was statistically significant relation between total mothers’ knowledge and their educational level, residence at p ≤ 0.05 (≤0.002, ≤0.002) respectively.
• There was statistically significant relation between total mother’s practices and educational level, residence at p ≤ 0.05 (≤0.002, ≤ 0.04) respectively.
• There was positive correlation between total mothers’ knowledge regarding radiotherapy and total mothers’ practice regarding their child receiving radiotherapy with (r=0.267 at p ≤ 0.002) respectively.
Conclusion:
Based on findings of the current study, it can be concluded that, there was statistically significant relation between total mothers’ knowledge and their educational level, residence also there was statistically significant relation between total mother’s practices and educational level, residence and there was positive correlation between total mothers’ knowledge regarding radiotherapy and total mothers’ practice regarding their child receiving radiotherapy.
In the light of the study findings, the following recommendations were suggested:
In the light of findings of the current study, the following recommendations are suggested:
• Health education and continuous intervention classes should be encouraged by nursing education team and radiotherapy team in (outpatient) for both parents about radiotherapy.
• Designing and carrying out programs by radiotherapy nurse to support parents and their children receiving radiotherapy, and to allow their families to cope positively with the side effects.
• Health education about the radiotherapy must be involved in the routine nursing care for parents and their children who receiving radiotherapy.
• Designing educational materials about radiotherapy for patients and nurses these materials are prented, online and on hospital TV chaneels.
Recommendations for Further researches:
• Educational programs and courses for the radiotherapy nurses about radiotherapy, its side effects and needs of children should be provided to help the parents and their children to manage any problems.
• Designing radiotherapy power chart forthe radiotherapy nurses about health education to patients and their mothers during radiotherapy sessions about radiotherapy side effects and needs of children.