Summary
Background
Ninety percent of parents of pediatric oncology patients report distressing, emotionally
burdensome healthcare interactions. Assuring supportive, informative treatment discussions
may limit parental distress. Here, we interview parents of pediatric surgical oncology
patients to better understand parental preferences for surgical counseling.
Methods
We interviewed 10 parents of children who underwent solid tumor resection at a university-based,
tertiary children's hospital regarding their preferences for surgical discussions.
Thematic content analysis of interview transcripts was performed using deductive and
inductive methods.
Results
Three main themes were identified: (1) the emotional burden of a pediatric cancer
diagnosis; (2) complexities of treatment discussions; (3) collaborative engagement
between parents and surgeons. Within the collaborative engagement theme, there were
four sub-themes: (1) variable informational needs; (2) parents as advocates; (3) parents
as gatekeepers of information delivery to their children, family, friends, and community;
(4) parental receptivity to structured guidance to support treatment discussions.
Two cross-cutting themes were identified: (1) perception that no treatment decision
needed to be made regarding surgery and (2) reliance on diverse support resources.
Conclusions
Parents feel discussions with surgeons promote informed involvement in their child's
care, but they recognize that there may be few decisions to make regarding surgery.
Even when parents perceive that there are there are no decisions to make, they prioritize
asking questions to advocate for their children. The emotional burden of a cancer
diagnosis often prevents parents from knowing what questions to ask. Merging this
data with our prior pediatric surgeon interviews will facilitate development of a
novel decision support tool that can empower parents to ask meaningful questions.
Level of evidence
III
Keywords
Abbreviations:
COREQ ((Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research)), PTSD ((Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)), QPL ((Question Prompt List))To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 30, 2022
Accepted:
December 25,
2022
Received in revised form:
December 15,
2022
Received:
November 9,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
