The lived experience of Maltese patients with cancer and their carers during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

This study is an in-depth view of the lived experiences of Maltese patients with cancer and their informal carers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research questions explored what the patients and carers went through as service users of local services for cancer. It also explored what being a patient and caring for someone with cancer was like during the March 2020 pandemic in Malta. The participants were of the age-range between 18 and 59 years, whereas there was no age limit for the persons who were identified as the carers by the patients themselves. Participants consisted of three patient-carer dyads. Each patient and their carer were interviewed separately, through the use of semi-structured interviews. These were audiotaped, transcribed and the resulting data was analysed through Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The study was approached from an insider-researcher perspective as the researcher is a social worker within the national hospital for patients with cancer. The research suggests that patients and their carers were (and still are) a vulnerable population, significantly impacted by the restrictions imposed during the pandemic. It also underscores the need to acknowledge the needs of the carers. While the experience of services differed, one common issue was the social distancing measures that affected the experience of service-users and their psycho-social well-being (uncertainty amongst others). This was a common factor in all participants. The study concludes with a description of which cancer care services assisted this cohort and recommendations and what can be improved in the event of future pandemics and the role of the oncological social worker.