Abstract
This qualitative descriptive study explored how nurses respond to 7- to 8-year olds who suffered from cancer when they asked about the deaths of their peers, who had coped with suffering before death. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 pediatric oncology nurses who each had over 3 years of clinical experience. Nurses assessed how much or how little the children would like to know about the situations of their associates while assuming an attitude that would prevent the children from realizing that their peers had died. Nurses could not unilaterally act on the children's requests, so the nurses assessed their parents' wishes regarding how their children should be informed of the deaths. Nurses could have potentially influenced the children's answers, but they attempted to impartially take note of the children's needs for information about the deaths of their peers. The nurses carefully took stock of the children's anxiety about their own futures and evaluated whether the children might want to discuss their own anxiety. They placed emphasis on the wishes of the children's parents and provided care to the children in accordance with their parents' wishes. The nurses observed the children's satisfaction with the care they received; they also noted that the children felt that they could not talk about their associate and that the children had various feelings about the death of their peers.
