Abstract
Objective:
To understand what it means to be a volunteer in a cancer-affected children care unit´s toy library, located within the state of São Paulo.
Method:
Phenomenological study based on the assumptions related to the analysis of the stated phenomenon's structure, with eleven volunteers to be interviewed upon a guiding question: "What does it feel like to be a volunteer in a toy library used by children with cancer?".
Results:
From the volunteer's answers, three theme categories arose: self-oriented relations, group-oriented relations and world-oriented relations.
Conclusion and implications for practice:
Being a volunteer embraces diverse relationships that contribute to the self-knowledge of the individual, making it possible to review concepts, beliefs, values, according to the new times in which we live There is a need for volunteer empowerment for work as well as mental health care. Nurses play a fundamental role in this context.
Keywords:
Volunteers; Play and playthings; Neoplasms; Child; Nursing