| 1. |
- Berg Doukkali, Eva, et al.
(författare)
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Adolescents and Young Adults Experiences of Childhood Cancer: Descriptions of Daily Life 5 Years After Diagnosis
- 2013
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Ingår i: Cancer Nursing. - : Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins. - 0162-220X .- 1538-9804. ; 36:5, s. 400-407
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanSurvivors of childhood cancer are a growing population in society. These young people have a high risk of developing chronic health problems with a potential strong impact on their lives. How a childhood cancer experience affects survivors in adolescence has been studied to a limited extent; an increased understanding of this young group is needed to improve follow-up care. less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanObjective: less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanThe aim of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of how childhood cancer affects the lives of survivors by exploring adolescents and young adults views of what it is like living with this experience. less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanMethods: less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanFifty-nine 11- to 22-year-olds were interviewed a median of 5 years after a cancer diagnosis (response rate, 66%). Data were collected through telephone interviews and were analyzed using qualitative content analysis techniques. less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanResults: less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanThree groups of informants were identified according to their descriptions of the influence of cancer treatment on their daily life: feeling like anyone else (informants who described that the cancer experience had almost no influence on current life) (49%), feeling almost like others (those who described some influence) (44%), and feeling different (those describing a great influence on current life) (7%). less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanConclusions: less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanMost of the adolescents and young adults appear to get along well, although many informants described that life was affected to some extent by having had cancer. less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanImplications for Practice: less thanbrgreater than less thanbrgreater thanFollow-up care is needed that can identify those young survivors of childhood cancer having trouble with daily life and offer them support to strengthen their resources in managing difficulties in relation to having had cancer.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Blomberg, Karin, et al.
(författare)
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Between youth and adulthood : focus group discussions with 30-year-old women about cervical cancer and its prevention in urban Sweden
- 2011
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Ingår i: Cancer Nursing. - : Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. - 0162-220X .- 1538-9804. ; 34:3, s. e11-e20
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Although there is a significant amount of research on cervical cancer screening (CCS), few studies address screening experiences of women related to reasoning about health maintenance and disease prevention in general. Research tends to neglect experiences in different phases of life and experiences of women with different screening histories. Recent literature primarily focuses on adolescents targeted for human papilloma virus vaccinations, whereas perspectives of women who need continued CCS are lacking.Objective: The aim of the study was to explore how 30-year-old women reason about health, ill health, health maintenance, and disease prevention, in relation to cervical cancer, its prevention, and screening.Methods: Through a population-based CCS registry, we randomly sampled women to attend focus group discussions stratified by previous patterns in screening history and test results. Data from 38 attendees were inductively analyzed.Results: Women’s discussions encompassed temporal aspects of the past and the future, with youth in the rearview mirror and the demands of adulthood ahead. Matters related to sickness, including cancer and its prevention, were described as distant and not prioritized in this phase of life. This situation was compounded by lack of relevant information about cervical cancer and screening.Conclusions: The manner 30-year-old women self-defined themselves in the transition between youth and adulthood appears to strongly influence their reasoning about CCS and other forms of health maintenance and disease prevention.Implications for Practice: Cervical cancer screening programs are challenged to adapt both information and organizations to new cohorts of women with different needs and life situations.
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| 4. |
- Darcy, Laura, et al.
(författare)
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The everyday life of the young child shortly after receiving a cancer diagnosis
- 2014
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Ingår i: Cancer Nursing. - : Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. - 0162-220X .- 1538-9804. ; 37:6, s. 445-456
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND:: Providing qualified, evidence-based healthcare to children requires increased knowledge of how cancer affects the young child's life. There is a dearth of research focusing on the young child's experience of everyday life. OBJECTIVE:: The purpose of this study was to explore young children's and their parents' perceptions of how cancer affects the child's health and everyday life shortly after diagnosis. METHODS:: Thirteen children with newly diagnosed cancer aged 1 to 6 years and their parents, connected to a pediatric oncology unit in Southern Sweden, participated in this study through semistructured interviews. Child and parent data were analyzed as a family unit, using qualitative content analysis. RESULTS:: Everyday life was spent at hospital or at home waiting to go back to hospital. Analysis led to the following categories: feeling like a stranger, feeling powerless, and feeling isolated. CONCLUSIONS:: The child wants to be seen as a competent individual requiring information and participation in care. Parents need to be a safe haven for their child and not feel forced to legitimize painful and traumatic procedures by assisting with them. Nurses play a major role in the lives of children. Research with and on the young child is necessary and a way of making them visible and promoting their health and well-being. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:: Nurses need to reevaluate the newly diagnosed child's care routines so as to shift focus from the illness to the child. This requires competent nurses, secure in their caring role.
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| 5. |
- Darcy, Laura, et al.
(författare)
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The everyday life of the young child shortly after receiving a cancer diagnosis, from both children's and parent's perspectives
- 2014
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Ingår i: Cancer Nursing. - Alphen aan den Rijn : Wolters Kluwer. - 0162-220X .- 1538-9804. ; 37:6, s. 445-456
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Providing qualified, evidence-based healthcare to children requires increased knowledge of how cancer affects the young child's life. There is a dearth of research focusing on the young child's experience of everyday life.Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore young children's and their parents' perceptions of how cancer affects the child's health and everyday life shortly after diagnosis.Methods: Thirteen children with newly diagnosed cancer aged 1 to 6 years and their parents, connected to a pediatric oncology unit in Southern Sweden, participated in this study through semistructured interviews. Child and parent data were analyzed as a family unit, using qualitative content analysis.Results: Everyday life was spent at hospital or at home waiting to go back to hospital. Analysis led to the following categories: feeling like a stranger, feeling powerless, and feeling isolated.Conclusions: The child wants to be seen as a competent individual requiring information and participation in care. Parents need to be a safe haven for their child and not feel forced to legitimize painful and traumatic procedures by assisting with them. Nurses play a major role in the lives of children. Research with and on the young child is necessary and a way of making them visible and promoting their health and well-being.Implications for practice: Nurses need to reevaluate the newly diagnosed child's care routines so as to shift focus from the illness to the child. This requires competent nurses, secure in their caring role.
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| 6. |
- Enskär, Karin, et al.
(författare)
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Young adult survivors of childhood cancer; experiences affecting self-image, relationships and present life
- 2010
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Ingår i: Cancer Nursing. - 0162-220X .- 1538-9804. ; 33, s. E18-E24
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Knowledge about how young adults experience being a childhood cancer survivor is limited, as most previous research concerning the quality of life in survivors of childhood cancer has been conducted using standardized questionnaires. The aim of the current study was to identify and describe young adults' own experiences of long-term effects of cancer treatment on their self-image, relationships, and present life related to the impact of being a survivor of childhood cancer. Interviews were held with 7 young adults, 20 to 23 years of age. The verbatim-transcribed interviews were analyzed using constant comparative analysis. The core category was identified as "compensated life picture." All the negative and difficult experiences are compensated for with a positive view on and positive expectations regarding life. This core category was grounded in 5 categories: living a normal life, bodily changes, relationships with and support from others nearby, sentient life, and personal growth. The findings in this study illustrate the importance for healthcare staff to be aware of young adult survivors' experiences of their childhood cancer and its long-term effects. Extra attention and support from the healthcare system after the concluded treatment period are needed via a support program or support group for young adults.
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| 7. |
- Ervik, Bente, et al.
(författare)
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Hit by Waves : Living With Local Advanced or Localized Prostate Cancer Treated With Endocrine Therapy or Under Active Surveillance
- 2010
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Ingår i: Cancer Nursing. - 0162-220X .- 1538-9804. ; 33:5, s. 382-389
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Previous studies of living with prostate cancer have shown that the illness and the treatment cause physical as well as psychosocial problems.Objective: The aim of this study was to illuminate men's experiences living with localized or local advanced prostate cancer when curative treatment such as surgery or radiation therapy is not an option at the time of diagnosis.Methods: The study was conducted via qualitative interviews, using a phenomenological hermeneutic approach. Ten men treated with endocrine therapy or under active surveillance were interviewed.Results: Being diagnosed with prostate cancer was described as a shock, with different aspects of the illness revealed gradually. The limited amount of time available for meeting with health care providers contributed to patients' feelings of being left alone with difficulty getting information and help. Sexual and urinary problems were perceived as a threat to their manhood. The spouses provided the closest everyday support.Conclusion: The life situation of these patients can be understood as living in a "state of readiness," expecting something to happen regarding their illness, and not always knowing where to get help. Implications for Practice: The results confirm existing knowledge of patient's experiences in living with prostate cancer regarding the initial shock perceived by the patients, the bodily alterations, and the important role of their spouses. Nurses, as well as general practitioners, must play a more active role in follow-up to ensure that the men and their spouses receive better help and support.
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| 8. |
- Ervik, B., et al.
(författare)
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In the middle and on the sideline : The experience of spouses of men with prostate cancer
- 2013
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Ingår i: Cancer Nursing. - 0162-220X .- 1538-9804. ; 36:3, s. E7-E14
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Spouses play an important role in how well patients with prostate cancer manage their illness. Whereas earlier studies mostly included both patients and spouses, this study focuses on the spouses' experiences during the course of the illness. Objective: The objective of this study was to explore how the daily life of female spouses is affected by their husband's prostate cancer. METHODS: Qualitative interviews were conducted with 9 spouses of men receiving potential curative treatment for prostate cancer. RESULTS: Prostate cancer in men had significant impact on spouses' everyday life. The results showed that spouses strived to achieve a balance between focusing on their own needs and meeting their husbands' needs along the course of the illness. Four themes emerged: strong and optimistic versus vulnerable and overstrained, maintaining the partner's sense of manhood, being on the sideline, and the need for relationships outside the immediate family. CONCLUSION: Being a spouse to a man with prostate cancer is emotionally and practically demanding. There is a danger of the spouses suppressing their own needs in the process of supporting their husbands. Those spouses living in the situation over a period of years expressed fatigue and a shift in focus from their husbands' needs to their own needs for support. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Healthcare providers should provide support for spouses during the course of the illness, encourage spouses to participate in seminars for couples living with prostate cancer, and be aware of the potential for situational fatigue in spouses many years after the diagnosis.
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| 9. |
- Fallbjörk, Ulrika, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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From "no big deal" to "losing oneself" : different meanings of mastectomy
- 2012
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Ingår i: Cancer Nursing. - Philadelphia : Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. - 0162-220X .- 1538-9804. ; 35:5, s. E41-E48
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Because of early detection and advanced treatment options, more women with breast cancer survive after mastectomy and thus have to face the choice of living with or without a reconstructed breast for many years to come. Objective: This article investigates these women’s narratives about the impact of mastectomy on their lives, as well as their reflections on breast reconstruction.Methods: Fifteen women were strategically chosen from a previous population-based study on mastectomy. They were contacted for further exploration in thematic narrative-inspired interviews 4.5 years after mastectomy.Results: Three types of storylines were identified. In the first storyline, the mastectomy was described as ‘‘no big deal’’; losing a breast did not disturb the women’s view of themselves as women, and breast reconstruction was not even worth consideration. In the second storyline, the women described the mastectomy as shattering their identity. Losing a breast implied losing oneself as a sexual being, a woman, and a person. The third storyline fell in between the other two; the sense of femininity was wounded, but not to the extent that they felt lost as women.Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the experience of mastectomy due to breast cancer is very much individual and contextual. Losing a breast may be of minor or major importance.Implications for Practice: Healthcare practitioners should be attentive to how the women themselves experience the personal meaning of losing a breast and guard against vague preconceptions based on the breast-sexuality-femininity discourse and its connection to what the patient needs.
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| 10. |
- Fritzell, Kaisa, et al.
(författare)
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Patients' views of surgery and surveillance for familial adenomatous polyposis.
- 2010
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Ingår i: Cancer Nursing. - 0162-220X .- 1538-9804. ; 33:2, s. E17-23
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) is an inherited condition that requires prophylactic surgery (colectomy) followed by a lifetime program of endoscopic surveillance to prevent colorectal cancer. Patients are normally free of symptoms before surgery but a majority report problems related to bowel function postoperatively.OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to gain a deeper understanding of how FAP affects life by exploring patients' view of what it is like living with the illness and being committed to a lifelong screening program.METHODS: Three focus group interviews were conducted, and data were analyzed using descriptive qualitative content analysis.RESULTS: The analysis resulted in two categories related to the participants' view of living with FAP. The first category was associated with concerns related to the hereditary and lifelong nature of the disease as well as to the prophylactic surgery and the second category was related to patients' ways of managing life.CONCLUSION: Most participants expressed unmet needs, such as lack of healthcare providers with good knowledge about FAP, practical and psychosocial support, FAP educational programs, and organized meetings with other persons with the condition.IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: One important aspect of living with FAP shared by the participants concerned ways of managing life concerns, something that healthcare providers caring for patients with FAP should identify and support. Furthermore, continuity of care by health care providers with good knowledge about FAP can be an important way of reducing patient concerns.
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