Abstract
This study aimed to analyze the anxiety of mothers whose young children had childhood leukemia after their children were discharged from the viewpoint of nurses working at the pediatric unit. A semi-structured interview was conducted with 14 nurses working at the pediatric unit. We also conducted a qualitative inductive study to analyze the findings. The anxiety after discharge was classified into 3 groups: anxiety induced by the children, anxiety of the mother herself, and unrecognized anxiety. The nurses recognized that the mothers were anxious not only about "The general health care of their sick children" "The completion of the long outpatient treatment," and "Adaptation of group living" but also about the future e.g., "Anxious about their child's appearance in future". In addition, the mothers thought that their own life was being spent in taking care of the sick children and their sibling, and were anxious about "Restructuring their own life". The nurse guided the mothers with respect to the car taking measures for the sick children when in hospital, but they recognized that it was difficult for the mothers to manage their child after discharge and that the cause of anxiety was unrecognizable in some cases.
