The therapeutic pathway of families of children with cancer: difficulties faced in this journey

Abstract

OBJECTIVE  To know the difficulties faced by families in the therapeutic pathway of children with cancer.

METHOD  Qualitative, descriptive and exploratory research, with a quantitative approach, performed from March to November 2016, through face-to-face semi-structured interviews, with 21 relatives of children undergoing oncological treatment at a federal university hospital in Rio de Janeiro, whose data were submitted to content analysis.

RESULTS  The difficulties of these families traverse the identification and investigation by health professionals regarding the signs and symptoms of children as well as the passage of relatives through various health services until diagnostic confirmation.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS  The early diagnosis of childhood cancer depends on actions from health and teaching institutions for the appropriate investigation of the disease by professionals, including the nurse who works with risk classification in emergency departments and in primary care, besides the appropriate operation of the reference and counter-reference system of the health system.

Keywords:
Neoplasms; Child; Early diagnosis; Delayed diagnosis; Primary health care; Pediatric nursing