Difficulties Experienced by Nurses in Providing Support to Patients with Breast Cancer Conflicted about Disclosing Their Diagnosis to Their Children
- VernacularTitle:子どもに病名を伝えるか否かに悩む乳がん患者を支援する看護師が体験した困難
- Author:
Riho TAKIZAWA
1
;
Tomoe MAKINO
2
Author Information
- Keywords: breast neoplasms; truth disclosure; parent-child relations; nursing care; qualitative research
- From:Palliative Care Research 2025;20(2):129-136
- CountryJapan
- Language:Japanese
- Abstract: This study elucidated the experiences of nurses facing challenges in assisting patients with breast cancer who are conflicted about revealing their diagnosis to their children. Seven nurses were interviewed to achieve the objectives of this study. The analysis focused on the nurses’ narratives regarding their struggles in providing support to patients with breast cancer. Following analysis, four categories were extracted from the data: “Insufficient time to support patients,” “Insufficient interprofessional coordination makes continuous involvement difficult,” “Unable to bring up the topic of explaining the illness to the child due to concern about the patient’s emotional burden,” and “Unable to intervene despite concerns that the child may realize the illness at the end, which could strain the parent-child relationship if the illness is not disclosed.” The nurses had anticipated and were concerned about the problems that would arise if the patient did not tell their child about their diagnosis and illness. However, the nurses did not have the courage to raise this topic with the patients. The findings suggest that to handle such situations, nurses should empathize with patients, understand the patients’ worries and desires, and collaborate to share patient information between medical professionals.
