探討接受返校照護模式癌症兒童之學校生活適應

Background: School reentry is part of the recovery program for children with cancer to get back into normal routine, of which education plays a key role. A medical center in southern Taiwan has developed a school reentry care model for children with cancer. Through more than a dozen of school reentry meetings with the parents and school staff in a month's long follow-up by the pediatric oncology team, the assessment of the reentry program was mostly positive. Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the school-life adaptation of children with cancer under the school reentry care model. Methods: The children and their parents, who had participated in the school reentry care meeting during 2017-2018, were invited to join this research. Twenty pairs of the participants were interviewed, and the data were inducted, categorized and quantified via content analysis. Result: The children became well-adjusted gradually after returning to school for 1.5 to 3 years and could adhere to their self-care protection rules which they had learned during the school-reentry meetings. Parents were in constant contact with the schools. Using a 10-point self-evaluation scale, the children with cancer rated an average of 5.7 points for the satisfaction on their academic performance, and 8.5 points for their school life satisfaction. Although the schools and peers provided plenty of social support, eighty percent of the children with cancer expressed negative experience toward the interaction with their classmates. Conclusions / Implications: All the children with cancer kept up their self-care ability. They adapted well with the support from the peers, parents and schools. They returned to school successfully and also gave excellent reviews to the school reentry program.