Föräldrars upplevelser av att leva med ett barn med cancer : En litteraturöversikt

Sammanfattning: Introduction: In Sweden, around 350 children get cancer every year. In total, these cancercases account for less than one percent of all cancer cases in the country. During the child'scancer treatment, it is not only the child who is exposed to stress, but also parents can beaffected by physical, emotional and socio-economic strains. Health care must show care andrespect for patients and their relatives.Objective: The purpose of this literature review is to shed light on parents' experiences ofliving with a child who is undergoing cancer treatment.Method: A descriptive design with a general literature review as a method was used in thisstudy. The result was based on twelve original scientific articles from the databases PubMedand CINAHL. The articles were thereafter quality reviewed using SBU's review template"assessment of studies with qualitative method" (SBU, 2020).Results: Parents of children with cancer experienced physical and emotional, financial andsocial stress during the child's cancer treatment. Examples of the physical and emotionalstrains included stress, anxiety, feelings of guilt and lack of sleep. The parents experiencedfinancial burdens that were associated with reduced working hours due to the child's cancertreatment. This negatively affected the parents' working conditions. The parents' socialnetworks were also negatively affected as many parents reduced contact with their friends,family and partners. The parents experienced an enormous need for support during childhoodcancer treatment. Adjusted information from the health care system and participation in thechild's cancer treatment was perceived as an important contribution for the parents.Conclusion: Parents of children with cancer go through various physical, emotional,financial and social pressures. Physical and mental illness can develop in parents due to,among other things, the financial burden and stresses that come with the child's cancer. Theparents' health and well-being can be affected to a large extent by how they are treated by theHealth Service. This can be promoted by offering simple and comprehensible informationthat is individually adjusted to each parent.