Introduction

Having a patient with cancer in the family entails challenges leading to a need to reorganize family dynamics to provide care, which may result in neglecting caregiver's self-care and their needs at the hospital during inpatient stay.

Objective

To understand how family caregivers would like to be cared for during hospital stay.

Materials and Methods

A qualitative research was conducted with 14 family members in a Brazilian oncology hospital in 2019. Interviews were ended upon data saturation and later analyzed using the Content analysis method. Ethical aspects were considered in this research.

Results

The first category showed that welcoming, attitudinal competencies of the healthcare team, psychological support and home support are considered important measures that healthcare centers can provide caregivers. The second category identified how family members would like to be cared for through interviews, revealing care transference from oneself to the care of another, as well as physical, spiritual and psychological care demands.

Discussion

Our understanding is that care expectations of caregivers in the above healthcare center are close to the actual assistance offered to them.

Conclusions

A need for planning support strategies for family caregivers during inpatient stay has been pointed out in this study, in addition to the importance of interdisciplinary support groups and continuous psychological support that cover family members as part of these care programs.

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