The Lived Experience of Nurses Caring for Adult Family Members With Cancer

Background: Having a family member who has been diagnosed with cancer is stressful for family members. Evidence suggests that family members experience uncertainties associated with the patient’s illness, treatment, and potential for advancing disease (Ferrell, 2018). While there is a rich body of literature focused on family caregiving, little is known about the family caregiving experiences of registered nurses (Giles & Hall, 2014, St-Amant et al., 2014), and specifically, nurses caring for a family member with cancer (Cicchelli & McLeod, 2012). In the United States, there are nearly 3 million registered nurses (US Department of Labor, 2017). However, to date, most published nurse-family caregiver research has originated in Canada, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand. The purpose of this ongoing investigation is to explore the essential elements of caregiving as experienced by US registered nurses caring for an adult family member (parent, spouse, in law, sibling, son or daughter) with cancer.

Purpose: This qualitative inquiry seeks to answer the following core questions: 1) What is the essence of the phenomena of caregiving as experienced by nurses caring for a family member with cancer, and 2) What meaning do these nurses ascribe to their experiences? Sample: A purposive sample of registered nurses was recruited to participate in an in-person interview. Participants were required to meet the following inclusion criteria: a) self-report that they hold current licensure as a registered nurse; b) have 2 or more years of professional nursing experience and be currently engaged in the practice of nursing; and c) self-identify as being the caregiver of an adult family member who is currently receiving cancer care or has received cancer care in the previous 12 months.

Data Collection: At the completion of the investigation, it is anticipated that 12-14 nurses will have participated in individual interviews (lasting 45-60 minutes) conducted by a member of the research team. The research team is comprised of four PhD-prepared registered nurses. The in-person interviews are being conducted in the participant’s preferred setting. Demographic information including participants’ years of professional nursing experience, age range, ethnicity, gender, highest level of educational preparation of the nurse, practice setting, specialty area, current nursing position title of current nursing position, relationship to the care receiver (i.e. parent, spouse, in law, sibling, son, daughter), and duration of the caregiving experience will be used to describe the participants. A semi-structured, focused interview guide, developed by the research team, which includes open-ended and clarifying questions will be used to facilitate the expression of the participant’s lived experience.

Data Analysis Method: The analyses will explores, describe, and examine the essential aspects of this family caregiving experience using the phenomenological contextual processing and analysis method proposed by van Manen (1997). The research team, using collaborative hermeneutic conversations, will examine data. Thematic aspects of interview texts will be uncovered and explored in light of the lifeworld existentials of spatiality (lived space), temporality (lived time), corporeality (lived body), and relationality (lived other) (van Manen, 1997).

Significance: The contribution of this investigation is to advance understanding of the family caregiving experiences of US registered nurses, to identify unique aspects of their experience, to identify strategies that support, sustain, and enhance caregiving, and to offer recommendations for practice, education, policy, and research.