Vivência do homem no cuidado ao familiar com câncer

Abstract

This research aimed to understand the man's experience in caring for a family member with cancer; to apprehend the meaning attributed by men to the experience of caring for their relatives with cancer; and to elaborate a substantive theory that represents the experience of men in the care of their relatives with cancer. Symbolic Interactionism was used as a theoretical framework and Grounded Theory as a methodological framework. Twelve male caregivers participated, who met the criteria: being a man who performs primary caregiver activities, that is, a family member with all or most of the responsibility for care; and be 18 years of age or older. Data collection took place from January 2020 to October 2021, using a characterization form for caregivers and their families, construction of the genogram and interview. The organization, description and analysis of the information took place following the constant comparative method. The software called ®Nvivo, version 11 was used to assist in the organization and coding of data from the interviews. All ethical precepts of research involving human beings were respected. The project was approved by the Ethics Committee in Research with Human Beings, under opinion 4,223,230. The substantive and theoretical coding allowed the elaboration of the substantive theory "Experiencing the care of a family member with cancer: the man as a caregiver", having as a central category "Love that leads to care" built from the relationships of context, cause, intervening condition and consequence of four categories. The theory developed from the men's narratives about their experience as a caregiver allowed them to understand their feelings, perceptions, ways of acting and facing the diagnosis, performing care, recognizing the difficulties and learning from the situations that arise in this context. Likewise, the results obtained in this research represent additional knowledge about the experience of men in caring for their family member with cancer, explaining the interactional processes and the symbolic elements present and how they influence the actions and attitudes of caregivers. The results provide subsidies for research, assistance and extension, as it presents possible indications for the way to serve the male public that performs the care and, still, offers propositions for possible studies on the subject, pointing out contributions and, in a certain way, stimulus. so that other researchers are interested in the subject and develop research focusing on the experience of male caregivers.