Role of Family Care Givers Regarding Care of their Children Suffering from Acute Lymphoblast Leukemia

A. Salah, Samah,; , E. Ouda, Wafaa; Mohamed Adly, Randa; Shalaby, Lobna

doi:10.21608/ejhc.2024.400024

Role of Family Care Givers Regarding Care of their Children Suffering from Acute Lymphoblast Leukemia

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Section head of Nursing Education at Children Cancer Hospital 57357, Cairo, Egypt

² Professor of Pediatric Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

³ Professor of Pediatric Oncology, National Cancer Institute, Cairo University

10.21608/ejhc.2024.400024

Abstract

Background: Child hood Leukemia is a broad term that refers to a group of malignant diseases of the bone marrow and lymphatic system. Burden is one of the issues that are faced by primary family care giver. Menwhile, they experience frustration in performing tasks, isolation and failure due to inadequate education about the disease and inadequate information support. Aim: Assess role of family care givers regarding care of their children suffering from Acute Lymphoblast Leukemia (ALL). Design: Descriptive exploratory design. Setting: The current study was conducted at In-Patient Pediatric Hematology departments affiliated to Children's Cancer Hospital (57357). Subjects: A convenience sample composed of 40 family care givers for children suffering from ALL attending the above-mentioned setting with exclusion of terminally ill children. Tools: Two tools were used for data collection; First tool: Assessment sheet for the family care givers. Second tool: Observational checklists. Results: The current study revealed that the mean age of the studied family care givers was 33.31 ± 7.05 years, half of them were in the age group range 30 < 40 years, Also, the results of study showed that the mean age of the studied children was 6.68 ± 3.66 and less than two-thirds of them were males. Also, it was found that almost the majorty of the family care givers had poor level of knowledge. and more than three quarters had un satisfactory level of actual practices. Conclusion: The current study results concluded that almost the majority of the family care givers had poor level of knowledge and the majority of them had un satisfactory level of practice regarding care of their children suffering from ALL Recommendation: Designing and implementing an educational intervention for family care givers to enhance their role regarding care of their children with ALL.

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