The goal of this thesis was to make an English information leaflet for patients receiving chemo-therapy. The leaflet was made in cooperation by two nursing students and a team of registered nurses of chemotherapy unit of Oulu University Hospital.

The chemotherapy unit treats cancer patients of Northern Ostrobothnia Hospital District by outpatient chemotherapy. Drugs are usually given intravenous or orally as capsules. Patients receiving chemotherapy may undergo unpleasant side effects. Many of the side effects may be relieved by different ways. Some side effects may be fatal.

Patient guidance is an important part of holistic care of a patient. Written information is useful and should be available. Part of the nurse’s job at the clinic is to inform patients about the treatment they’re having and several issues relating to treatment. Information is given both spoken and written, for example by handing over leaflets. Sometimes the patients are foreign and can’t understand Finnish. There are no English leaflets available at the unit.

A good quality patient information fulfills two following features: 1) readable – information should be presented only by main points on visually pleasant content 2) informative – information should be relevant and useful. Our aim for quality was to combine these two features and put them in balance. Eventually a two-page leaflet was composed, which included essential information about chemotherapy, including a list of possible side effects, proper symptom management and some important procedures and precautions. Up-to-date contact information was presented distinctly.

The information leaflet was graded by the nurses of the chemotherapy unit. Using a three-point evaluation form (readability, visually pleasant content, informative content) at the scale from 1 to 10 the nurses gave us overall grade 9.

This information leaflet suits for patient guidance in the Northern Ostrobothnia Hospital District.