Patterns of 'balancing between hope and despair' in the diagnostic phase: a grounded theory study of patients on a gastroenterology ward

Hope pictured in drawings by women newly diagnosed with gynecologic cancer

BACKGROUND

In mysterious ways, hope makes life meaningful even in chaotic and uncontrolled situations. When a woman is newly diagnosed with gynecologic cancer, hope is ineffable and needs exploring. Drawings help express ineffable phenomena.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the study was to explore how women newly diagnosed with gynecologic cancer express the meaning of hope in drawings.

METHOD

Participants were 15 women who on the same day had received the diagnosis of gynecologic cancer. They were between 24 and 87 years (median, 52 years) with a variety of gynecologic cancer diagnoses. Data from 15 drawings and postdrawing interviews with the women were analyzed using visual and hermeneutic phenomenology.

RESULTS

Three themes emerged: hope as a spirit to move on, hope as energy through nature, and hope as a communion with families.

CONCLUSION

Hope as pictured in drawings often appears through metaphors and incorporates internal, external, and relational aspects. With other words, inner willpower, experiences in open nature, and closeness to loved ones contribute to hope when newly diagnosed with gynecologic cancer.

IMPLICATION FOR PRACTICE

The use of drawings in clinical situations might give cancer nurses new perceptions of hope and other phenomena. Patients might feel threat and despair when diagnosed with cancer; they need gentle truth about reality, and they long for being together with loved ones. Nurses are in a unique position to enable hope in this situation through listening and active engagement. Drawing might be a tool in understanding the hope. Drawings picture where words come short.

Gynecological cancer patients' differentiated use of help from a nurse navigator: a qualitative study

Background

Fragmentation in healthcare can present challenges for patients with suspected cancer. It can add to existing anxiety, fear, despair and confusion during disease trajectory. In some circumstances patients are offered help from an extra contact person, a Nurse Navigator (NN). Scientific studies showing who will benefit from the extra help offered are missing. This study aims to explore who could benefit from the help on offer from a nurse appointed as NN in the early part of a cancer trajectory, and what would be meaningful experiences in this context.

Methods

A longitudinal study with a basis in phenomenology and hermeneutics was performed among Danish women with gynecological cancer. Semi-structured interviews provided data for the analysis, and comprehensive understanding was arrived at by first adopting an open-minded approach to the transcripts and by working at three analytical levels.

Results

Prior experience of trust, guarded trust or distrust of physicians in advance of encountering the NN was of importance in determining whether or not to accept help from the NN. For those lacking trust in physicians and without a close relationship to a healthcare professional, the NN offered a new trusting relationship and they felt reassured by her help.

Conclusions

Not everyone could use the help offered by the NN. This knowledge is vital both to healthcare practitioners and to administrators, who want to do their best for cancer patients but who are obliged to consider financial consequences. Moreover patients’ guarded trust or distrust in physicians established prior to meeting the NN showed possible importance for choosing extra help from the NN. These findings suggest increased focus on patients’ trust in healthcare professionals. How to find the most reliable method to identify those who can use the help is still a question for further debate and research.

The salience of existential concerns across the cancer control continuum

Despite significant improvement in cancer survival, the fear of death still remains rooted in individuals' beliefs about cancer. Existential fears pertaining to cancer cut across the cancer control continuum and taint decisions related to prevention, screening, surveillance, and follow-up recommendations, as well as the overall management of cancer-related issues. However, individuals are innately predisposed to cope with their cancer-related fears through mechanisms such as reliance on the process of meaning making. To better appreciate the potential impact of existential concerns across the cancer control continuum, the Temporal Existential Awareness and Meaning Making (TEAMM) model is proposed. This tripartite model depicts three types of perceived threats to life related to cancer including a “social awareness” (i.e., cancer signals death), “personalized awareness” (i.e., I could die from cancer), and the “lived experience” (i.e., It feels like I am dying from cancer). This construal aims to enhance our understanding of the personal and contextual resources that can be mobilized to manage existential concerns and optimize cancer control efforts. As such, existential discussions should be considered in any cancer-related supportive approach whether preventive, curative, or palliative, and not be deferred only until the advanced stages of cancer or at end of life. Further delineation and validation of the model is needed to explicitly recognize and depict how different levels of existential awareness might unfold as individuals grapple with a potential, actual, or recurrent cancer.

Introducing the first Global Congress for Qualitative Health Research: What are we? What will we do--and why?

In this plenary address, I introduce the Global Congress for Qualitative Health Research, its purpose, and its role internationally. Within this context, I explore the origins and development of qualitative health research, the content of qualitative health research, its components, and its contribution to health research. I argue that qualitative inquiry develops in levels, building from exploration and description of phenomena to the identification of concepts, the theoretical basis for quantitative inquiry, qualitative theory development, and to utilization, implementation, and evaluation. This incremental development is not purposefully planned, but occurs as a result of voluminous inquiry into similar topics using different qualitative approaches and designs. A single study rarely makes a breakthrough; rather, we must recognize the conglomerate of qualitative studies that give it validity and strength. The Global Congress for Qualitative Health Research will provide a forum for international collaboration for the development of qualitative health research.

Staff and patient views of the concept of hope on a stroke unit: a qualitative study

AIM

This study explores the experience of hope for patients and staff in the context of a British stroke unit.

BACKGROUND

Hope is identified as a useful concept for exploring how people find meaning in recovery from illness. Uncovering the experience of hope in acute stroke care has provided evidence that can be used to facilitate rehabilitation.

METHODS

The methodology drew on the principles of ethnography, undertaking unstructured qualitative interviews with ten patients, ten multidisciplinary staff and 21 hours of participant observation including informal discussions with staff and patients. Data collection took place between November 2007 and November 2008.

FINDINGS

Four themes were identified: suffering, struggling with no hope and despair, hope for recovery and realistic hopefulness. Hope was experienced in the context of suffering a stroke demonstrated as loss of function, loss of mental capacity and dependency. Patients struggled to maintain a sense of hopefulness while feeling close to a slippery slope towards despair and death. Hope was expressed as a strong desire to recover, get back to normal and a time to reflect on their lives so far. Staff identified realistic hopefulness as focused on keeping things real while balancing giving hope and avoiding false hope.

CONCLUSION

Hope is placed within the emotional challenges of suffering and struggle inherent in recovery from stroke. The staff work with patients' hopes but offer realistic hopefulness as a practical strategy for recovery. Further interventions are required for working with feelings of despair or no hope.

Walking a fine line: an exploration of the experience of finding balance for older persons bereaved after caregiving for a spouse with advanced cancer

PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH

During the past decade, research regarding cancer patients has become more prevalent, however research regarding the needs of their family caregivers is limited. The purpose of this study was to explore the ways in which caregivers, who survive the loss of their spouse to cancer, find balance in their lives.

METHODS AND SAMPLE

A constructivist grounded theory approach was undertaken which included the analysis of in depth interviews, journal entries and the researcher's field notes and memos. Interviews were conducted with 10 bereaved caregivers (7- females, 3-males) ranging in age from 66 to 83 years old. The data included 21 interviews and 8 journals.

KEY RESULTS

For bereaved caregivers "walking a fine line" emerged as a major process, balancing between "deep grieving" and "moving forward" in order to successfully create a new life without their partner. The main concern of the participants was "losing control" of balance. The emergence of these processes reveals the importance of addressing the bereaved caregivers' need to find balance within their new lives.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings of this study highlight the unique needs of bereaved caregivers who have lost a spouse to cancer, and provides a basis for ongoing research focused on assessment and intervention. Further research is needed to determine whether the process of finding balance is similar in other groups of caregivers who are bereaved.

Hope as experienced in women newly diagnosed with gynaecological cancer

AIM

This article presents findings from a hermeneutic-phenomenological study with the aim to investigate the meaning of the lived experience of hope in women newly diagnosed with gynaecological cancer.

METHOD

Fifteen women were interviewed the day they were receiving the diagnosis at a gynaecological department of a Danish university hospital. The women, aged 24-87 (median 52 yrs), were diagnosed with ovarian, endometrial, cervical and vulvar cancer.

RESULTS

Hope was found to be connected to both diagnosis, cure, family life and life itself and closely tied to hopelessness. The newly received cancer diagnosis made the women oscillate between hope and hopelessness, between positive expectations of getting cured and frightening feelings of the disease taking over. Five major interrelated themes of hope were identified: hope of being cured, cared for and getting back to normal, hope as being active and feeling well, hope as an internal power to maintain integration, hope as significant relationships and hope as fighting against hopelessness. Thus, hope was woven together with hopelessness in a mysterious way; it took command through inner strength and courage based on a trust in being cured and of being in relationship with significant others.

CONCLUSION

The findings of the close relationship between the shades of hope and hopelessness support the need for nurses to continue to practice hope-inspiring nursing. Nurses need to understand the complexity of hope and its close connection to hopelessness when newly diagnosed with a threatening disease as cancer; and the findings might help nurses assist patients in fighting hopelessness.