Offering a Concert for Two: An Interpretation of Friendship in Pediatric Oncology Palliative Care Nursing

Abstract

In this paper, written for a hermeneutic research course for my master's graduate work, I discuss how pediatric oncology nursing is an interpretive practice. I explore the subject of the relational complexity of pediatric oncology nursing, conceptualized as friendship. I discuss the similarities between understandings of hermeneutics and friendship. In the second part of the paper, I provide a narrative and interpretive account of a personal experience of friendship with a palliative patient and his mother, to offer understanding about the complexities of the work of pediatric oncology palliative care nursing.

Keywords

• hermeneutics
• pediatric oncology nursing
• interpretive writing
• pediatric palliative care
• friendship
• relational complexity