TRIUMPH OVER ADVERSITY: A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF NARRATIVE, COPING AND EXPERIENCE IN INDIVIDUALS DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER
Open Access
- Author:
- Subnis, Utkarsh
- Graduate Program:
- Communication Arts and Sciences
- Degree:
- Master of Arts
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- None
- Committee Members:
- Roxanne Louise Parrott, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Roxanne Louise Parrott, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Michelle E Day, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- cancer
narrative
qualitative
coping
experience - Abstract:
- The increased occurrence of chronic illness has created a need to study the experience of illness from the patient perspective. Current medical training and education does not typically incorporate the patient experience of illness. Learning about patient perspectives is even more important in disease such as cancer which has a tremendous psychosocial impact on patients. Patient narratives are an appropriate means of studying patient experience of cancer. More than ever, people are writing accounts of the experience of illness and treatment and patients are turning to these narratives for anecdotal information about particular illnesses and their treatments, conventional and alternative (Hawkins, 1999). This study takes a qualitative approach to studying cancer narratives of 21 patients to understand the patient experience of disease as well as examine the role narratives play in the patient experience of disease. Distinct features of the patient experience of cancer were identified by the qualitative analysis. Features of the cancer experience included the impact of diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis on the cancer experience, perceptions of the etiology of cancer, coping mechanisms such as social support and spirituality, reactions to the health care system, and metaphors for describing the cancer experience Results of this study suggest that personal cancer narratives—written, read, told, and listened to—can be highly useful for patients coping with a cancer diagnosis. The results also suggest that narratives might be an important public health tool for the dissemination of cancer related information.