Publication
Spirituality among parents of children with cancer at AUBMC
Doumit M, Majdalani M, Saab R, Rahi A · Cancer Nursing · 2016
Purpose/Objective: Aims of the Project: To understand what spirituality means for parents of children with cancer admitted to the Children's Cancer Center of Lebanon (CCCL). Background/Rationale: Background: Childhood cancer affects the life of the whole family. Parents start to search for spirituality and focus on positive power to replace fear and powerlessness that they experience with the illness of their child. Studies indicated that spiritual needs differ among parents and should be assessed for all and addressed in the child's routine care. Support services for families during illnesses should be meeting the emotional, psychological, spiritual and social needs. There is lack of evidence on the perspectives of different family members, and little assessment of the role of culture and spirituality in the support of these families. Description/Methods/Evaluation: The study design followed the Heideggerian approach as described by Diekelmann and Ironside, (1998). Inclusion criteria were having a child currently admitted to the CCCL at AUBMC. The number of participants was determined by data saturation, which usually occurs with eight to ten participants. Primary caregivers were first approached by the CCCL clerk once they agree to participate the PI agreed with them on the date and time of the interview. In-depth semi-structured interviews along with observation field notes were used as data sources followed by two focus group sessions. All interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. Data were interpreted using a seven stage hermeneutical process as described by Diekelmann and Ironside. Outcome/Results/Findings: The information obtained in this study will be used to fill the gap in the literature about the meaning of the concept of spirituality within this particular group of participants. The results of the qualitative data will illuminate the practice of palliative care and cancer care at CCCL at AUBMC and extrapolated to other centers in Lebanon and possibly other Middle Eastern countries and will pave the way for a customized palliative care program and fill identified gaps in spiritual support and helping patients to cope. Conclusion/Discussion: The results of this study provided the information needed for health care workers in order to offer quality care/ interaction for parents and children with cancer.
Synced from the TRENDS in Pediatric Palliative Care Zotero library, curated by The Siden Research Team. ICPCN does not host or verify the full text.