Educational Issues of Children who are Chronically Ill: A Quantitative Analysis of Patients’, Caregivers’, and Educators’ Beliefs
There is a paucity of research evaluating the effectiveness of school intervention and school reentry programs with respect to meeting the perceived educational needs of the recipients. In an attempt to align the goals of these programs with the perspectives of stakeholders, this research examined the perspectives of such recipients at an urban pediatric hospital. This study was novel in its aim to capture perceptions of educational issues of chronically ill students of three key stakeholders in a patient’s education: the patient, associated caregiver, and associated educator. Perceptions were categorized within five domains, including perceptions about student attendance, teacher knowledge, medical issues, peer issues, and academic performance. While the primary purpose of this research was to identify the perceived educational issues across these five domains according to chronically ill patients, their caregivers, and their educators, this study also examined secondary aims to determine if perceptions varied from one group of stakeholders to another and to determine if perceptions were impacted by a patient’s specific oncologic diagnosis. A quantitative design was employed in which all participants completed a perceptions questionnaire at a single time point. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and MANOVA.
Education, educational issues chronic illness, pediatric illness school, children who are chronically ill, school issues for children who are ill, perceptions, beliefs
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