Fatigue in children and adolescents with cancer from the perspective of health professionals

OBJECTIVE: to investigate health professionals' knowledge about the concept, assessment and intervention in fatigue in children and adolescents with cancer. METHOD: exploratory study with qualitative approach, with 53 health professionals (10 nurses, 33 assistant nurses, 3 physicians, 3 nutritionists, 2 psychologists and 2 physical therapists). Semi structured interviews were held, which were recorded and analyzed by means of inductive thematic content analysis. RESULTS: the data were organized around three themes: knowledge of health professionals about fatigue; identification of fatigue and interventions to relieve fatigue. CONCLUSION: the results indicate the health professionals' limited knowledge about fatigue, as well as the lack of investment in their training and continuing education. Most of all, the lack of research on the theme in the Brazilian context remains a barrier to support improvements in care for this symptom in children and adolescents with cancer.