Research Assessment #6

Date: October 31, 2017

Subject: Pediatric Oncology

MLA citation:

Suzuki, Lalita K, and Pamela M Kato. Psychosocial Support for Patients in Pediatric Oncology:

The Influences of Parents, Schools, Peers, and Technology. Sage Journals, Association

of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses, 1 July 2003,

journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1043454203254039.

Assessment:

In my previous research assessments, I have focused on pediatric psychosocial oncology

in an attempt to filter my search down to a potential original work topic. Following this, I

searched for any specific article related to psychosocial oncology that would provide me with a

foundation on which to build my original work. Accordingly, I found an article discussing how

parents, schools, and peers affect the coping and adjustment of young patients with cancer

(Suzuki).

As I learned in my last assessment, the diagnosis of cancer in childhood brings about

many significant changes in the lives of young patients and their families. Managing to adjust to

the lifestyle of an oncology patient while undergoing the changes of puberty makes for a chaotic

time in their lives, making it critical to provide adequate psychosocial care. Thus, this article

studied how a patient can be helped in the most optimal way beyond the walls of the hospital,

namely through their parents, school, and peers. It has been made clear through past research that

their support is incredibly critical to the well-being of the patient as they require a variety of
interventions to be able to improve coping and interpersonal interactions; however, many few

attempts to improve this have been made in the past, especially regarding support from parents.

What has proven effective in the past years of studies is to aid parent coping by increasing

communication about cancer, educating peers about cancer, and providing peer support through

support groups and cancer camps (Suzuki). In recent years, especially, technology has also

provided additional and new forms of support in each preexisting domain. Thorough information

is easily accessible on the internet to people of all kinds, especially parents. Parent support

groups have even begun to sprout online in another attempt to improve parent coping. Video

games are also being used to initiate parent-child conversations about cancer, or to alleviate child

distress during procedures. Schools are also using video/computer games and websites to educate

classmates and peers, and emails, text messages, and chat rooms among other medias keep

hospital-bound patients in contact with their teachers and friends. There are even online

computer networks such as SBW that connect children in hospitals throughout the country with

one another (Suzuki). With the increasing variety of these available interventions, nurses and

physicians are playing an increasingly significant role in raising awareness and accessibility to

different forms of psychosocial support for pediatric oncology patients and their families

(Suzuki).

From this article, I have learned that improvements in technology are providing a

gateway into improved care for pediatric oncology patients across the country. There are

countless factors that go into providing the best care for any one patient, and it is not black or

white. The gray space in between is what accounts for the increasing variety of interventions

available to provide the best care for as many children as possible. In addition to the benefits of
technology, however, I have learned the benefits of educating those around the patient in

addition to the patient himself. Creating an environment in which everyone is educated is just as

important as providing the resources for the patient in the hospital. This has given way to a

potential original work idea for me, in which I would create a presentation to educate younger

students about the conditions and treatments of pediatric cancer. When my friend was diagnosed

with osteosarcoma in seventh grade, I recall a presentation that sparked my interest in pediatric

oncology, in which nurses from the hospital at which she stayed came and told us about

everything that she would be undergoing in the upcoming weeks. This presentation is part of

what helped my class and her get through her battle with cancer, and I hope that I can possibly

do the same for other students in our community.