How to approach adolescents (aged 13–18 years) when their parent is suffering from cancer has become a relevant issue in healthcare, as parental cancer may have an impact on adolescents’ health and development. Nurses are well positioned to identify adolescents’ needs and provide information and support to them but often feel ill equipped to approach them appropriately. The aim of this study was to explore nurses’ experiences of approaching adolescents whose parent had cancer. Interviews with 12 nurses were conducted and analysed in line with a constructivist grounded theory approach. Nurses made efforts to create welcoming environments for adolescents but realised that the contact was unsatisfactory. Primarily, the nurses offered face-to-face conversations with adolescents, which did not correspond with adolescents’ communication channels. To better provide information and support to adolescents, nurses must expand their nursing toolbox so that it is better adapted to adolescents’ communication channels.

Background A parent’s cancer may have disruptive impact on his/her adolescent children. Currently, nurses have been regarded as central actors in direct involvement with patients’ minor children. Development of an extended nursing role has become a pertinent issue. Objective Adolescents’ needs tend to be overlooked by nurses because of inexperience with this population. The aim of this study was to explore nurses’ experiences of direct involvement with these adolescents, to get a deeper understanding about this phenomenon. Methods Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, 12 interviews were conducted among Norwegian nurses within the cancer care context. The category insufficient competence was explored through analyzing participants’ experiences of direct involvements with adolescents. Results The recognition of insufficient competence became visible as nurses experienced being involved with a population about whom they held inadequate and limited knowledge. Adolescents were perceived as unpredictable and rejecting nurses’ approaches. Consequently, nurses feared involvement and experienced failing on their assignments. After completing more or less failed attempts to establish good relationships with adolescents, the nurses request for more knowledge and experience in order to support this group. Conclusions Nurses are recognizing insufficient competence in direct involvement with adolescents, which calls for extended competence. Because nurses are not the only responsible actors performing in this field, building competence requires a broadened attention at both an individual and organizational level, across several healthcare disciplines, as well as through user participation. Implications for Practice Competence building should be considered in light of organizational frameworks, collective learning possibilities across disciplines, and opportunities for involving adolescents/young adults as user participants.

Care for sick parents and their dependent children (<18 years) has become a pertinent issue in health care. Nurses play an important role in caring for parents with cancer as well as their children. By utilizing a constructivist grounded theory approach, the aim of this study was to expand the research-based knowledge of nurses’ experiences of personal emotions in this research field and to develop a subsequent explanatory theory extending the existing concept of emotional labor. Interviews with 12 nurses were conducted and analyzed. The nurses experienced this area of work as particularly emotionally challenging and attempted to manage personal emotions through regulating and processing strategies. Through this process, they sought for emotional strength by balancing their private lives and work lives to manage work-related emotions. An increased awareness of emotional labor may strengthen nurses’ emotional competence in nursing.