Pasacreta, J.V., Barg, F., Nuamah, I., & McCorkle, R. (2000). Participant characteristics before and 4 months after attendance at a family caregiver cancer education program. Cancer Nursing, 23, 295–303.

The Family Caregiver Cancer Education Program consisted of three group sessions in two-hour blocks as a psychoeducational program for caregivers led by nurse–social worker teams. A panel of 20 multidisciplinary experts in oncology designed the program content.

Topic areas in the program included

• Talking to a loved one’s physician and managing in the healthcare system
• Handling role and family relationship changes
• Care of medical equipment
• Managing symptoms
• Talking to children
• Managing other jobs and responsibilities
• Handling insurance and financial issues
• Dealing with emotional reactions
• Finding and asking for help
• Self-care maintenance.

• The sample (N = 187) included English- or Spanish-speaking caregivers who attended the program and completed baseline and four-month follow-up measures.
• Caregivers provided care to patients with a variety of cancer diagnoses during or after transition points of illness.

Caregivers of patients with cancer from 18 healthcare agencies in a large northeastern city (results from one site of a larger multisite study)

A nonrandomized, well-designed trial design was used, with pretest, post-test, baseline, and four-month postintervention scores completed.

• Caregiver Reaction Assessment
• Caregiver Demands Scale

• Only the impact of caregiving on household finances (dimension of burden) showed significant improvement from baseline to four months postintervention.
• Significant improvement was found in knowledge and assessment of the caregiver role at four months postintervention.
• A significant gender difference existed: More men withdrew and did not complete the second interview. However, no statistical differences in measured burden were found by gender.

• Selection and self-selection bias is a potential limitation in the study.
• Generalizing is difficult because the burden of caregivers who were unable to attend the program may differ from those who did.