Relationship with a physician in the narratives of children and adolescents hospitalized due to cancer

The key value of the physician-patient relationship has been strongly emphasized in scientific literature for a long time. This relationship impacts significantly the patient’s therapeutic process. In case of children and adolescents suffering from cancer, the relationship with physician is of a specific value due to both the age of such patients and the type of disease. Children and adolescents meet various specialists (physicians) during their treatment; however, they establish a long-term and quite intensive relationship with their treating physician. This relationship is, by definition, most important during intensive and maintenance therapy. The physician’s involvement is indisputable and it is directly related to the therapeutic process and its success. However, what is also extremely important is the physician’s interest in a particular patient and a personalized nature of this relationship: treating physician (subject) – child (subject). The manner in which the physician communicates with and treats his or her patient has a significant impact on the patient’s wellbeing during treatment and afterwards. The relationship with a physician also determines the patient’s subjectivity and self-esteem in later everyday life. The paper presents the results of research focused on the opinions of children and adolescents concerning relationships with their treating physicians. The study was conducted in three institutions which belong to the Polish Paediatric Leukaemia and Lymphoma Study Group. It involved 62 children aged 7–17 years old at different stages of their cancer treatment.