The Perceptions of Children and Adolescents with Cancer Regarding Nurses' Communication Behaviors during Needle Procedures.

Background: Communicating with children and adolescents with cancer during a needle procedure can prove challenging for healthcare professionals. Objective: Our aim was to explore the perceptions of children and adolescents with cancer regarding communication with nurses during needle procedures. Method: Thus was a qualitative phenomenological study. Data were gathered through seven in-depth interviews with a convenience sample of children and adolescents with cancer. Data were analyzed using a grounded theory approach to identify themes in the participants' narratives. Results: The analysis revealed three themes describing participants' experience: (1) nurses need to explain clearly what they are going to do while also allowing children to express their emotions without feeling coerced; (2) nurses need to be honest and approachable and relate to children as active participants in the treatment process; and (3) it is distressing to hear other children who are undergoing a needle procedure cry out in pain. Further application of the constant comparison method yielded a core theme: (4) the pressures faced by oncology nurses lead them to focus on the technical side of procedures at the expense of their young patients' communication needs. Conclusions: We suggest that hospital managers need to ensure that oncology nurses have sufficient training in communication skills and are confident in their ability to respect and respond to the communication preferences and needs of patients.

Spiritual pain as part of the hospitalization experience of children and adolescents with acute lymphoblastic leukemia: A phenomenological study.

PURPOSE: To explore the experience of hospitalization among children and adolescents in treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. METHODS: Qualitative phenomenological study informed by grounded theory and involving a convenience sample of children and adolescents attending an oncology unit in Spain. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with seven children aged between 9 and 18 years and analyzed using ATLAS.Ti 7.1. software in order to identify themes in the participants' narratives. Specific strategies were applied to support the validity and reliability of the findings. RESULTS: The analysis of interviews revealed three themes in the participants' accounts of their experience of hospitalization: 1) It's normal to feel afraid when being treated in hospital; 2) Needle procedures are associated with pain, illness, and dying; and 3) Difficulty of expressing the suffering that is experienced in hospital. CONCLUSIONS: A core experience among children and adolescents who are hospitalized for cancer treatment is the spiritual pain that results from feeling afraid. These fears are especially associated with the needle procedures that are routinely performed in the diagnosis and treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia.