Family research in pediatric oncology nursing

This article reviews and critiques pediatric oncology family nursing research and suggests advancing the research basis of pediatric oncology family nursing practice. The article is organized around the conceptual issues that challenge family nurse researchers, the methods used in reviewing the literature, instrumentation that reflects conceptual issues, findings, and suggestions. Methodological issues abound in this literature and some shared findings across studies do exist: parenting is a concern of all family members; family communication problems have been identified from several perspectives; and increased stress at some points in treatment is reported by all members of the family. Coping is an area of limited agreement and adjustment is poorly articulated in this literature. Longitudinal studies, improved instrumentation, use of triangulation, and publication of more complicated data sets that include family measurement are recommended to advance the scientific basis of pediatric oncology family nursing.