Kid Cards: Teaching Kids About Medicines

In 2004, then Surgeon General Carmona stated that a health literate individual is more apt to know the answer, when asked how to keep themselves well (AHRQ, 2004). There is a burgeoning movement among medical professionals to address health literacy. Teaching health information to children will empower them to actively participate in their current care and provide self-management skills that will assist them to keep themselves well throughout their lives. Currently, few medication administration instructional cards exist that are appropriate for children. Providing medication information that the child might understand may result in better administration compliance, fewer adverse effects and develop an individual that is knowledgeable regarding medications and appropriate administration. The purpose if this research is to develop medication administration cards, appropriate for children, which provide information on the most commonly used drugs among the Hematology/Oncology population.

The overall objective of this research is to develop medication informational cards for medications frequently used within the Hematology/Oncology pediatric population, and evaluate the effectiveness of these cards, by means of a pre- and post-test.