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  • Children with cancer and their families believed and expected that symptom suffering was necessary to overcome cancer

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Qualitative
Children with cancer and their families believed and expected that symptom suffering was necessary to overcome cancer

https://doi.org/10.1136/ebn.7.1.29

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    Woodgate RL, Degner LF. Expectations and beliefs about children’s cancer symptoms: perspectives of children with cancer and their families. Oncol Nurs Forum 2003;30:479–91.OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed

    Q How do children with cancer and their families experience cancer symptoms?

    DESIGN

    Grounded theory and illness narratives.

    SETTING

    Participants’ homes and inpatient and outpatient paediatric cancer units in western Canada.

    PARTICIPANTS

    39 children with cancer at varying stages (age 4.5–18 y, 54% girls, 95% Caucasian) and their families. All children received chemotherapy alone or in combination with surgery, radiation, or bone marrow transplant.

    METHODS

    Data were collected from 230 individual or joint interviews with mothers (117 interviews), fathers (46 interviews), siblings (48 interviews), and children (103 interviews); and 960 hours of participant observation of children and their family members. Audiotapes and field notes were transcribed, and data were analysed using constant comparison and illness narratives.

    MAIN FINDINGS

    Children and their families described 5 common beliefs and expectations. (1) Short term pain for long term gain emphasised how children and their families equated cancer with suffering, and the belief that suffering was …

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    Footnotes

    • For correspondence: Dr R L Woodgate, Helen Glass Centre for Nursing, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Roberta_Woodgate{at}umanitoba.ca

    • Source of funding: Canadian Health Services Research Foundation.