Enfrentamiento del cáncer por la unidad familiar: dificultades y estrategias

Objective: Knowing the difficulties and the strategies used in the facing of cancer by the family unit. Materials and Methods: This is a research with a qualitative and descriptive approach, conducted in a surgical unit in a hospital in the southern of Rio Grande do Sul in the period of June to July 2007. It was applied semi-structured interviews to seven participants, including patients and relatives, being determined by selection criteria previously established. It was used content theme analysis from which emerged the categories: the experience of the family unit in the discovery of cancer and the organization of the family unit to face cancer. Results and Discussion: It was evident that becoming ill because of cancer is fraught with significance for both the patient and his family. Live with this disease causes deep changes in the routine of everyone involved, requiring them adaptations to the new reality, both within the emotional as financial and social.Descriptors: Nursing; Oncologic nursing; Family relations; Emotions