Parents’ Experience of Caring Children with Cancer: A Qualitative Study with Phenomenological Approach

Background: Diagnostician of cancer in children can influence their parents’ life due to the fact that the disease may threaten the patient’s life. It can also put a great burden of care on their parents. Objectives: In this study, we tried to clear the feelings of parents who experience the phenomenon of caring a child with cancer. Methods: The present study has been conducted as a qualitative research with phenomenological approach. Participants were selected with purposeful sampling among 13 parents with an average age of 33.2 and we continued sampling until data saturation. Information was collected by in-depth interviews. The process of interviews was valid and acceptable. Finally, data were categorized as content frameworks (themes) and analyzed with the Colizzi method. Results: The extracted content is consisted of eight main subheadings that include the parents anxiety of the death of their children, parents inability to respond to the questions of their children, parents inability to have an appropriate behavior while confronting the children angry, parents suffering of treatment side effects in their children, the pressure of economic, social, and psychological burden on family, lack of time, experienced the impact of spiritual support, and influence on the relationship between parents and 18 subthemes. Conclusions: Taking care of a child with cancer may have an influence on the parents’ life in different aspects and on their quality of life. Regarding the severity of this experiment on the life of parents and due to the sensitivity of this issue, it seems necessary that the results of this study be considered by the country’s health policy makers.