Parental management of children's cancer-related pain at home
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An exploration of how parents manage their child’s cancer-related pain at home
IRAS ID
203527
Contact name
Theresa Wiseman
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 11 months, 28 days
Research summary
There is a trend towards children with cancer spending more of their cancer journey at home and less time in hospital. Whilst this improves quality of life, it incurs a shift in responsibility for pain management from nurses to parents. This pain management role is one which parents have reported to find challenging. There is a lack of knowledge relating to how parents manage children’s cancer-related pain at home. This study aims to understand the experiences and behaviours of parents of children with cancer as their responsibility for managing their child’s pain increases.
Participants will be parents or guardians of a child aged from birth to the day before their 17th birthday with any cancer diagnosis, on treatment with curative intent. Participants will be recruited from the children’s day unit and the children’s inpatient unit at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust.
There are three phases of participation. All participants will take part in the first phase. After this phase they can choose which further phases, if any, they wish to partake in. The first phase is a survey exploring their attitudes to pain medications and how children express pain. The second phase is a pain diary in which parents will be asked to record twice daily pain scores for their child along with any actions taken to manage the pain for one month whilst at home. The final phase is interview which will take approximately 60 minutes and will be conducted either face-to-face at a mutually agreed location or over the telephone.
Data from each phase of this study will be analysed separately and then integrated. The results will be collated and disseminated via publications in peer reviewed journals and conference presentations.
REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 1
REC reference
16/NS/0121
Date of REC Opinion
11 Nov 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion