Helping Teachers Help Children With Cancer: A Workshop for School Personnel

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Abstract
Even though survival rates have improved dramatically, childhood cancer remains a life-threatening illness How can patients and families be helped to deal with the chronic stressors inherent in such a disease? This article focuses on one aspect of this question promoting positive experiences at school It describes a workshop offered for the purpose of providing information about childhood cancer to public and private school teachers in Charleston, South Carolina Pre- and post-workshop assessments were done of the participants' knowledge of medical facts about childhood cancer, their attitudes toward children with cancer, their knowledge of the emotional impact of cancer on families, and their beliefs about how they would respond to a student with cancer The results are examined in terms of changes in the teachers' attitudes and objective knowledge and factors which predict the pre-workshop levels of those variables Finally, implications of the results are examined, in light of the utility and effectiveness of such an intervention as a means of "primary prevention".

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