A Qualitative Study Exploring Coping Strategies in Chinese Families During Children's Hospitalization for Cancer Treatment

Abstract

Purpose: To explore how Chinese families cope with children's hospitalization for cancer treatment.

Design and methods: A descriptive qualitative inquiry was employed. Semi-structured interview was conducted in four pediatric oncology departments in four hospitals from November 2017 to June 2018. The interviews focused on how families cope with the challenges resulting from their children's hospitalization for cancer treatment. Twenty one parents participated into the study.

Results: Four categories related to family coping strategies emerged from the data, including increasing family strength, maintaining optimistic thoughts, seeking external support, and not disclosing the unfavorable information.

Conclusions: Families had adopted multiple coping strategies to handle the challenges caused by children's hospitalization for cancer treatment. The influences of Chinese culture on family coping should be taken into consideration during family-centered interventions development. Further studies could analyze whether the spouse perspectives are independent from one another and whether the coping strategies change as the time of hospitalization.

Practice implications: This study has reminded nurses' to become more concerned about the influences of culture on families' coping strategies during this challenging period. Other nurses in the world could understand how to enhance family coping strategies of Chinese clients.

Keywords: Cancer; Family care; Family coping; Hospitalization; Oncology.