Children's experiences of information, advice and support from healthcare professionals when their parent has a cancer disease - experiences from an oncological outpatient department.

PURPOSE

This study was carried out in order to evaluate children's experiences after taking part in the pilot clinical intervention "See Me" aimed at supporting children as relatives.

METHOD

A qualitative explorative design with interviews was chosen, with analyses using an inductive approach. Interviews were conducted with 19 children (9 aged 7-12 years and 10 aged 13-18 years). The younger children were asked to draw a picture of a person in hospital, using the Child Drawing: hospital (CD:H) instrument to measure the child's level of anxiety. The older children completed the Caring Professional Scale (CPS) as a measure of the caring approach in their encounter with the nurse.

RESULTS

The interviews with the children show that: they felt expected and welcomed at the hospital; they needed knowledge about their parent's situation; they needed information and participation based on their individual situation; and they needed the nurse to offer them information and support. The results from the pictures showed that one child had above-average levels of anxiety. The older children reported that the nurses were Competent Practitioners, but to a lesser degree that they were Compassionate Healers.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this pilot study indicate that the structure of "See Me" could be used as a starting point to ensure that children as relatives receive information, advice, and support. Further the results indicate that both CD:H and CPS could be used to evaluated children's experiences of support when a parent has a long-term illness.