Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Managing Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Point of View and Fears of Pediatric Cancer Patients’ Families

Olga Nigro
,
Giovanna Sironi
ORCID logo ,
Andrea Ferrari
ORCID logo ,
Gabriele Tinè
,
Gabriele Infante
,
Francesco Barretta
ORCID logo ,
Matteo Silva
,
Carlo Alfredo Clerici
,
Stefano Chiaravalli
,
Elisabetta Schiavello
,
Veronica Biassoni
ORCID logo ,
Marta Podda
,
Cristina Meazza
,
Filippo Spreafico
,
Michela Casanova
,
Monica Terenziani
ORCID logo ,
Roberto Luksch
ORCID logo ,
Maura Massimino
* ORCID logo
Version 1 : Received: 11 February 2022 / Approved: 23 February 2022 / Online: 23 February 2022 (13:57:46 CET)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Nigro, O.; Sironi, G.; Ferrari, A.; Tinè, G.; Infante, G.; Barretta, F.; Silva, M.; Clerici, C.A.; Chiaravalli, S.; Schiavello, E.; Biassoni, V.; Podda, M.; Meazza, C.; Spreafico, F.; Casanova, M.; Terenziani, M.; Luksch, R.; Massimino, M. Managing Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Point of View and Fears of Pediatric Cancer Patients’ Families. Children 2022, 9, 554. Nigro, O.; Sironi, G.; Ferrari, A.; Tinè, G.; Infante, G.; Barretta, F.; Silva, M.; Clerici, C.A.; Chiaravalli, S.; Schiavello, E.; Biassoni, V.; Podda, M.; Meazza, C.; Spreafico, F.; Casanova, M.; Terenziani, M.; Luksch, R.; Massimino, M. Managing Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Point of View and Fears of Pediatric Cancer Patients’ Families. Children 2022, 9, 554.

Abstract

(1)Background: When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, changes had to be made to several management aspects at our Pediatric Oncology Center. We investigated how the families per-ceived these changes. (2) Methods: Two questionnaires were developed at the Pediatric Oncology Unit of the Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori in Milan, to explore how the pandemic has affected the experience of patients who had been or were being treated at our hospital, and their families. These were administered to three samples of individuals. (3) Results: Between July and October 2020, 120 questionnaires were administered to parents of patients. The impact of school closures and the impossibility of attending sports and social activities outside the hospital were regarded as im-portant. 77.5% of parents judged the social distancing to have affected their children. Regarding the changes introduced in the management of the ward and outpatient clinic, most parents’ opinions were positive. Differences in the opinions expressed by Groups 2 and 3 were statistically significant on the topic of relationships on the ward and staff workload. The aspect most negatively affected by the pandemic was the support that patients’ parents were able to give each other. Regardless of whether patients were treated before the pandemic or after the first lockdown, their parents of all indicated a strong degree of satisfaction with the care received, and with the organizational ar-rangements. (4) Conclusions: The results of our study point us in the right direction to further improve our daily work and better respond to the needs of our patients and their families.

Keywords

COVID-19; pediatric cancer; managing care

Subject

Medicine and Pharmacology, Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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