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Reflections of Moral Suffering, Resilience, and Wisdom of Pediatric Oncology Social Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly altered the lives of pediatric oncology social workers. Challenges include difficulty building rapport with the use of telephone/computers, lack of clarity around who is designated as “essential”, structural challenges, isolation, and witnessing di...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Jones, Barbara, Cincotta, Nancy, Pelletier, Wendy, Fry, Abigail, Wiener, Lori
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9497975/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36135054
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/curroncol29090485
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author Jones, Barbara
Cincotta, Nancy
Pelletier, Wendy
Fry, Abigail
Wiener, Lori
author_facet Jones, Barbara
Cincotta, Nancy
Pelletier, Wendy
Fry, Abigail
Wiener, Lori
author_sort Jones, Barbara
collection PubMed
description Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly altered the lives of pediatric oncology social workers. Challenges include difficulty building rapport with the use of telephone/computers, lack of clarity around who is designated as “essential”, structural challenges, isolation, and witnessing distress. This study aimed to describe the ways that the pandemic has personally impacted pediatric oncology social workers. Methods: Participants were recruited through the Association of Pediatric Oncology Social Workers (APOSW) listserv. In total, 101 participants from 31 states and the District of Columbia completed an online survey containing quantitative and open-ended questions. Qualitative data analysis included thematic analysis of participants’ optional survey responses to three open-ended questions. Results: Fifty-seven of the participants provided responses that revealed 3 first level codes and 11 second level codes. First level codes were developed a priori from the questions: Experiences that stay with you, Wisdom gained and Impact on your work. Pandemic-related challenges caused moral suffering and professional challenges for participants but also created opportunities to find meaning in their work. Conclusion: Data illuminated moral suffering, unrecognized resilience, new ways of maintaining self-and family care, and creative approaches to care of children with cancer and their families at diagnosis, during treatments and at the end of life.
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spelling pubmed-94979752022-09-23 Reflections of Moral Suffering, Resilience, and Wisdom of Pediatric Oncology Social Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic Jones, Barbara Cincotta, Nancy Pelletier, Wendy Fry, Abigail Wiener, Lori Curr Oncol Article Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly altered the lives of pediatric oncology social workers. Challenges include difficulty building rapport with the use of telephone/computers, lack of clarity around who is designated as “essential”, structural challenges, isolation, and witnessing distress. This study aimed to describe the ways that the pandemic has personally impacted pediatric oncology social workers. Methods: Participants were recruited through the Association of Pediatric Oncology Social Workers (APOSW) listserv. In total, 101 participants from 31 states and the District of Columbia completed an online survey containing quantitative and open-ended questions. Qualitative data analysis included thematic analysis of participants’ optional survey responses to three open-ended questions. Results: Fifty-seven of the participants provided responses that revealed 3 first level codes and 11 second level codes. First level codes were developed a priori from the questions: Experiences that stay with you, Wisdom gained and Impact on your work. Pandemic-related challenges caused moral suffering and professional challenges for participants but also created opportunities to find meaning in their work. Conclusion: Data illuminated moral suffering, unrecognized resilience, new ways of maintaining self-and family care, and creative approaches to care of children with cancer and their families at diagnosis, during treatments and at the end of life. MDPI 2022-08-26 /pmc/articles/PMC9497975/ /pubmed/36135054 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/curroncol29090485 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Jones, Barbara
Cincotta, Nancy
Pelletier, Wendy
Fry, Abigail
Wiener, Lori
Reflections of Moral Suffering, Resilience, and Wisdom of Pediatric Oncology Social Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title Reflections of Moral Suffering, Resilience, and Wisdom of Pediatric Oncology Social Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full Reflections of Moral Suffering, Resilience, and Wisdom of Pediatric Oncology Social Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_fullStr Reflections of Moral Suffering, Resilience, and Wisdom of Pediatric Oncology Social Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Reflections of Moral Suffering, Resilience, and Wisdom of Pediatric Oncology Social Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_short Reflections of Moral Suffering, Resilience, and Wisdom of Pediatric Oncology Social Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_sort reflections of moral suffering, resilience, and wisdom of pediatric oncology social workers during the covid-19 pandemic
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9497975/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36135054
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/curroncol29090485
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