Caring for Patients Who Died of Breast Cancer: The Experience of Family Members

Abstract

Care provided for advanced stage cancer patients has proven to be a challenge for healthcare Services and patient families. This study was mainly inteded to understand the experience of relatives in caring for those patients at home. Informed Consent letters were mailed to families of 77 patients whose deaths were ascribed to breast cancer in four districts of the Municipality of São Paulo, Brazil, in 1996. The families were asked to be interviewed and informed about the investigation purposes, and were assured that the gathered information would be confidential and the respondants’ individual Identification would be undisclosed. Families of 14 patients agreed to take part. The results attained by interview analysis showed that, generally, the experience was perceived as diffcult and painful, mostly because of the feeling of impotence to cope with the disease, lack of support from others to share feelings and responsabilities, and the physical and emotional burden. It was observed that the impairement of patients ranged from 15 days to 12 months and care givers were mainly daughters and sisters; also, answers emphasized the need for professional support either to perform technical caring procedures and the psychosocial aspects involved in that situation.