Introduction : Care of dying patients is stressful for everyone. When the patient is a child and her cause of death is cancer, the tension rises. Care of dying child is very difficult. Reflection on the events will help nurses identify useful strategies for coping with the disease and provide better service to their patients. The aim of this study was to explore pediatric oncology nurse’s experiences of caring in the end of life and critical moments of dying children with cancer.
Methods: This study is a case report with a qualitative approach. The data collected through documented clinical narrations by an expert nurse in pediatric oncology. 30 written clinical narratives were coded, classified and themes extracted using conventional qualitative content analysis. The texts were analyzed with an emphasis on finding themes about “motivation of caring of dying children, challenges of caring of dying patients, factors that affect oncology nurse outcomes, and factors to continue working in oncology unit”.
Results: Four main themes were emerged from data analysis "Fulfilling the dreams of children", "surrender to God's will", "unbelievable life's final minutes", and "faith-based decisions". The data revealed that to create peace for dying, parents were advised to spend the last hours of child life with their child outside of hospital environment. The emotional attachment of the nurse to ill children and be witness of their deaths were described very painful experiences. Attending patient's funeral decreased mental burden for the oncology nurse and also had psychological healing for the patients’ families.
Conclusion: Although the care for children with cancer emotionally is painful and stressful, in case of providing spiritual situation for creating a peaceful death, satisfaction and calm conscience for nurses and parents will be occur.