ABSTRACT Introduction: Cancer causes crisis and adjustment in life for both the patient and their relatives. People who receive treatment for cancer are affected, both physically and mentally, which can include the need of solid care by health care professionals but also by relatives. To minimize the risk of suffering and its negative consequences, an increased understanding of relatives' experiences when a family member gets cancer is needed. Purpose: The purpose was to shed light on relatives' experiences when a family member is living with a cancer diagnosis. Method: A descriptive design with a general literature overview as a data collection method was used. Results: The results can be distinguished into four categories that describe relatives' experiences. The four categories are adjustment in the everyday life of the relatives, emotions of the relatives, psychological impact and support that is requested. The results showed that relatives felt physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted. However, they felt that support from health care, family, relatives, religion and friends helped them. Conclusion: Relatives living with a family member with cancer have a significant need to receive support from close relatives and health care professionals. It also emerged that relatives felt very anxious, fear, stress, uncertainty and psychological impact. They felt limited in their lives, gained a new perspective on life and that the family member's cancer affected the whole family. Keywords: Cancer, experiences, feelings, diagnosis and support.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-440003 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Söderman, Sofie, Eriksson, Annie |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för folkhälso- och vårdvetenskap, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för folkhälso- och vårdvetenskap |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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