Grandparents' Lived Experiences of Their Grandchildren's Cancer Journey

Cancer remains the leading cause of death by disease among children in the United States (U.S.), despite a 70% increase in survivorship over the last several decades. As a result, every year thousands of children with cancer and their families are forced to navigate a seemingly relentless existential crisis, desperately clinging to hope that they will make it through relatively unscathed. When a child is diagnosed with cancer, the child’s grandparents are often viewed as a source of support for the child’s family. However, rarely are the health-related needs of grandparents considered in the context of the child’s diagnosis and there has been limited exploration specific to the lived experience of the child’s grandparent. The overall aims within this dissertation were to 1) analyze the concept of family-centered care (FCC) in context of childhood cancer; 2) examine the current state of the science with regard to grandparents’ experiences in childhood cancer; and 3) explore the lived experience of grandparents of grandchildren diagnosed with cancer. Findings from the three studies comprising this dissertation establish a foundation for future inquiry into how families experience childhood cancer, potentially explicating their health-related needs and informing the ways in which health care clinicians provide FCC in the context of childhood cancer.