TITLE:
Status of Families of Children Hospitalized for Childhood Cancer in Japan: Nurse Viewpoints
AUTHORS:
Hitomi Ojiro
KEYWORDS:
Childhood Cancer, Hospitalized, Families
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Nursing,
Vol.15 No.6,
June
6,
2025
ABSTRACT: Background: The families of children with childhood cancer experience significant anxiety and psychological and physical impacts, which vary throughout the child’s hospital stay until discharge. Nurses are often unable to perceive emotions such as distress of the sick child’s parents. Therefore, it is necessary to show the nurses specific impacts on families and when such incidents occur. This would enable them care better for the child and their family and engage with them from the viewpoint of observation. Objective: To clarify nurse viewpoints on family status over time from hospitalization to discharge of their sick child. Methods: A questionnaire survey was administered to 1,100 nurses across 110 childhood cancer treatment facilities in Japan. Results: We received 208 valid responses. Factorial analysis of the items resulted in the identification of three factors: “family status”, “critical psychological status of families”, and “differences in perspectives between parents”. For all the three factors, mean values were lower after initial treatment had been completed compared to the period up until initial treatment. This indicated that completing initial treatment improved family status and reduced the sense of psychological crisis. “Differences in perspectives between parents” in the phase until initial treatment did not correlate with “family status” and “critical psychological status of families” in the phase from completion of initial treatment onward. Discussion: The investigation revealed the challenges in classifying family status during their child’s hospitalization into two time periods. Based on the results, the viewpoint of observing “family impact over the course of the sick child’s hospitalization” was created. Future studies should investigate the possibilities of practical utilization of these findings.