Nurses' attitudes towards children dying from cancer

Abstract

The diagnosis of malignancy comes as a profound shock for the affected child, the parents and the health care team. Although the cure rate for childhood cancer has increased dramatically over the last two decades, children still die from cancer. The purpose of this study was to explore the attitudes that nurses hold towards children dying from cancer, and to identify any measures of support that enhances coping in such situations. This study was carried out at St. Luke's Hospital on the two medical paediatric wards. A descriptive non-experimental research design was chosen. The sample consisted of twelve nurses and data was collected through structured interviews. Interpretation of the nurses' responses was mainly performed through content analysis. The data revealed that the nurses under study held mixed attitudes towards children dying from cancer. These attitudes arise from the fact that caring for these children is complex, stressful, demanding and an emotionally difficult nursing challenge. It emerged that the majority of nurses do not have any means of support to help them adopt coping strategies to deal with the stresses of paediatric oncology. Factors which could have led to these results were identified and approp1iate recommendations were discussed.