Family caregivers' itineraries of preschool children who survived leukemia: implications for primary healthcare nursing.
Camille Xavier de Mattos, Liliane Faria da Silva, Tátilla Rangel Lobo Braga and 3 others
PMID 36753256WHAT IT FOUND
Family caregivers of children who survived leukemia described noticing behavior change, fever, pain, and purple spots, but holiday access problems and fever and pain medicines delayed care.
Narratives described a known pediatrician who took phone calls and coordinated tests as helping move diagnosis forward.
Key findings
01Caregivers sought care when fever, behavior change, pain, and bruises appeared.
02A family narrative described fever and pain episodes controlled with antipyretics and analgesics during holidays, postponing diagnostic investigation for two weeks.
03Narratives described telephone contact with a reference pediatrician and care coordination as moving the child toward specialized investigation.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only seven family caregivers from five families were interviewed, so the themes cannot represent all families. The families were described as upper or middle class, with all caregivers highly educated and all having health insurance, so access problems may differ for uninsured or lower-income families. Recruitment used snowball sampling from online communities and required internet and digital skills, which may miss families without those resources. The study did not interview other family members or the health professionals who cared for the children. Participants lived in only two cities in southeastern Brazil, and none were black or brown, limiting transferability.
Declared interests
The paper reports funding from CAPES and CNPq, including scholarships and a grant to named authors.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that listening by nurses speeds diagnosis. It describes seven insured, highly educated caregivers in two Brazilian cities, and no intervention or outcome was tested.