“Is this my decision to make, or is it theirs?”

How parents navigate and negotiate decision-making with healthcare professionals when their child has cancer

Presenter: Dr Elizabeth Jestico (RN (Child), PhD)

Liz is a children’s nurse with a clinical background in children’s cancer nursing. She now works as a Senior Lecturer in Children’s Nursing at Oxford Brookes University and a Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol. Her PhD explored how parents may be supported by friends and family members with decision-making when their child has cancer

Summary of webinar presentation:

During the first interview of her PhD study, Liz asked a parent about the decisions that they had faced and the response was “we haven’t made any decisions, we’ve just done what we were told”. Similar perspectives were shared by other participants which raised important questions around how agency and control in decision-making is negotiated between parents and healthcare professionals within the context of children’s cancer care. By sharing parents’ stories and Liz’s evolving reflections, this webinar hopes to provoke discussion and thought about these fundamental issues that lie at the heart of children’s nursing.

Image by Freepik