Exploring Communication Difficulties in Pediatric Hematology: Oncology Nurses

Background: Communication plays an important role for the well being of patients, families and also healthcare professionals in cancer care. Conversely, ineffective communication may cause depression, increased anxiety,hopelessness and decreased of quality life for patients, families and also nurses.
Objective: This study aimed toexplore communication difficulties of pediatric hematology/oncology nurses with patients and their families,as well as their suggestions about communication difficulties. Materials and
Methods: It was conducted in apediatric hematology/oncology hospital in Ankara, Turkey. Qualitative data were collected by focus groups, with21 pediatric hematology/oncology nursing staff from three groups. Content analysis was used for data analysis.
Results: Findings were grouped in three main categories. The first category concerned communication difficulties,assessing problems in responding to questions, ineffective communication and conflicts with the patient’s families.The second was about the effects of communication difficulties on nurses and the last main category involvedsuggestions for empowering nurses with communication difficulties, the theme being related to institutionalissues.
Conclusions: Nurses experience communication difficulties with children and their families during longhospital stays. Communication difficulties particularly increase during crisis periods, like at the time of firstdiagnosis, relapse, the terminal stage or on days with special meaning such as holidays. The results obtainedindicate that pediatric nurses and the child/family need to be supported, especially during crisis periods. Feelingof empowerment in communication will improve the quality of care by reducing the feelings of exhaustion andincompetence in nurses.