Helping to Better Understand the Needs of Parents who Have Children with Cancer

When a child is diagnosed with cancer it is said to be a parent’s worst nightmare. At a time when emotions are running high, parents are challenged to manage their child’s illness and perform the required parental duties. Although there are opportunities for parents to work with healthcare professionals and learn about how the diagnosis is going to affect their lives, they often turn to the Internet for support from families in similar situations. Researchers have attempted to create resources to help parents who have children with cancer. However, there is not a lot of research showing how families can manage and adapt to the disruptions the illness will ultimately have because research with such families can be complicated due to time restraints and sensitivities.

Associate Professor Dr. Jill Bally and Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Meridith Burles have received funding from the Canadian Association of Nurses in Oncology for their project Examining Parents’ Online Accounts of Caring for a Child with Cancer.  Bally had this to say about the research. “Parents of children with cancer are a group of people that are frequently using the Internet to share their experiences with other families. Often these families face complex and traumatic circumstances that lead to a complete upheaval of their family life as they knew it. The stories that they publish on the Internet for other families to read produce online narratives that capture the immediacy of their experiences and highlight issues related to psychosocial well-being.”