Effects of Telephone Consultations on Discharged Liver Cancer

In the first year, a longitudinal mixed method with quantitative and qualitative method will be used. The Distress Management Tool, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and the Short Form-12 quality of life will be used to assess patients' care needs, anxiety, depression, and quality of life in the quantitative method. Data will be analyzed by descriptive, Pearson's Correlation, and Stepwise Regression for each time point. Tape-recorded and in-depth interviews with semi-structured interview guidelines will be used in qualitative method to interview the cancer patients who are scheduled to be discharged after treatment. Content analysis will be used to analyze the interview content.

In the second and third year, randomized control trial will be used to recruit eligible subjects from inpatients in oncology wards in one medical center in Taipei. The eligible subjects will be randomized into a control or experimental group. The patients in the control group will receive usual care and those in the experimental group will receive seven instances of telephone follow-up or face-to-face education (the day before discharge and during the first, second, third, fourth, sixth, and eighth weeks after discharge).Data will be analyzed by independent t-test, one-way analysis of variance, and generalized estimating equations.