Parents’ Relationship with Healthcare Providers During the Child’s Dying Process with Cancer at the Hospital (S797)

Abstract

•Identify meanings bereaved parents assign to the relationship established with healthcare providers.•Identify the elements that help parents and healthcare providers to establish a secure relationship during the child's end of life. The relationship established between healthcare providers, parents and children during end-of-life caring is complex and multidimensional. There are still little evidence that explores how these relationships during the child’s last hospitalization influence parental adaptation after their child’s death. This study aimed to understand the experience of parents in their relationships with nurses during their children with cancer’s dying process in the hospital. The philosophical hermeneutic was used to conduct the study. Family members were interviewed at least six months after their child’s death from cancer in the hospital. For the recruitment, a search in a pediatric hospital's obituary helped identify families. Each interview was audiotaped and transcribed. For the analysis, units of meaning and clusters were identified, then categories were inductively determined and submitted to an interpretation process. The most relevant aspects that emerged in parents' experience regarding the relationship established with healthcare providers were: communication, bond, care access, competence, values, and beliefs. The presence of these elements influences the way parents perceive their role while they live the unexpected experience of losing a child, and they remain in their memories associated with the meanings attributed for the illness and the loss. These relationships serve as the basis to strengthen and support the parenting role, and they become a remarkable reminder that parents keep as a permanent connection to their deceased child. By revisiting these memories, meanings arise that contribute to their grieving process.