46 - RCN

39. Anticipatory grieving among Jordanian parents living with a child with cancer (392)

Ekhlas AL Gamai, PhD student, Salford Centre for Nursing Midwifery and Collaborative Health Care, IHSCR Salford University, Salford, United Kingdom
Co authors: Tony Long & Joan Livesley
e.a.al-gamal@pgr.salford.ac.uk

Abstract:

Background:

Childhood cancer presents a series of uncontrollable, stressful events that exert a permanent impact on the child and their parents. These stressors may last months or years, and family life is altered by the uncertainties of illness.

Aim:

To provide insight into anticipatory grief of Jordanian parents living with a child with cancer, distinguishing between grief responses of parents of newly diagnosed children and those whose child was diagnosed 6-12 months previously.

Method:

140 parents, split between “newly diagnosed” and “6-12 months after diagnosis” groups, were recruited in 2006 from two hospitals representative of the health sector in Jordan. Structured interviews were conducted to assess anticipatory grief using a 50-item amended Marwit and Meuser Caregiver Inventory (2002), and the 27 item Anticipatory Grief Scale (1991). Analysis was performed using t-test.

Results:

All parents in the newly diagnosed group “longed for what was, what they had shared in the past before the diagnosis.” In the second group, 88.6% of parents reported a high level of personal sacrifice burden with having had to give up a great deal to care for their child since diagnosis. Fewer than half of the parents in both groups reported that they were at peace with themselves and the situation in life. Parents of newly diagnosed children reported more severe grief responses than those in the second group (t=8.30; p<0.001). No significant differences were found in responses between mothers and fathers.

Conclusion:

Families caring for a child with cancer are faced with uncertainties, new challenges and stressors. The results of this study offer guidance to nurses and others as to when and how to provide supportive intervention for such parents. Many similarities were found between the context in Jordan and that in the UK, so lessons may also be learned by a wider range of nurses.

Biography:

Ekhlas Al-Gamal qualified as a nurse in Amman, Jordan in 2002. Her clinical practice has focused on critical care nursing and working with cancer patient and their families. She is employed as a teaching and research assistant for two years in the University of Jordan. She commenced a full-time PhD in the University of Salford in 2005. Ekhlas AL Gamal awarded the prize for the best oral presentation at Postgraduate Research in Science and Medicine (PRISM 2007) conference which took place in Chester. Her doctoral study, which she is currently writing up, examined the nature and intensity of anticipatory grieving in Jordanian parents whose child was diagnosed with cancer.