Health care professionals' perspectives of the experiences of family caregivers during in-patient cancer care.
Being a family member of a patient who is being treated in an acute care setting for cancer often involves a number of challenges. Our study describes Norwegian cancer care health professionals' perceptions of family members who served as family caregivers (FCs) and their need for support during the in-hospital cancer treatment of their ill family member. Focus group discussions were conducted with a multidisciplinary team of 24 experienced social workers, physicians, and nurses who were closely involved in the patients' in-hospital cancer treatment and care. Drawing on qualitative hermeneutic analysis, four main themes describe health professionals' perceptions of FCs during the patient's in-hospital cancer care: an asset and additional burden, infinitely strong and struggling with helplessness, being an outsider in the center of care, and being in different temporalities. We conclude that it is a challenge for health care professionals to support the family and create room for FC's needs in acute cancer care. System changes are needed in health care, so that the patient/FC dyad is viewed as a unit of care in a dual process of caregiving, which would enable FCs to be given space and inclusion in care, with their own needs simultaneously considered alongside those of the patient.
Oslo University Hospital, Norway KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden mirjam.ekstedt@sth.kth.se.
Mirjam
M
Ekstedt
Oslo University Hospital, Norway.
Una
U
Stenberg
Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden Stockholms Sjukhem, Stockholm, Sweden.
Mariann
M
Olsson
Oslo University Hospital, Norway University of Oslo, Norway.
Cornelia M
CM
Ruland
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D022143:Family Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology*; D009664:Norway; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D011368:Professional-Family Relations
Norway; cancer; family caregivers; family-focused care; health care professional’s perceptions of family; in-patient cancer care