Abstract
The aim of this study is to understand the supports nurses provide children who receive information about their cancer and its treatments.
The study sample consisted of six nurses who have four to eleven years of clinical experience in pediatric cancer field. They were asked to participate in semi-structured interviews that were tape recorded. The recorded data were transcribed word for word, and analyzed using a grounded theory approach.
The data indicated that the nurses impact the children in five ways: by assessing the situation, by preparing the foundation for intervention, by providing guidance in daily life, by maintaining and supplementing information, and by judging the effects of interventions. The nurses did not merely encourage the children to do the appropriate behavior to fight the illness. Rather, their object was for the children to act with autonomy in their struggle with illness by getting information appropriate to their ability to comprehend and their level of interest. In order to be effective, nurses need to do two things: The first is to collect a variety of information and, keeping in mind the child's perspective, assess how the information should be presented. The second is to be constantly conscious of their objectives and how their actions affect their patients.
