Poster Presentation COSA-IPOS Joint Scientific Meeting 2012

The cancer journey: patients’ personal experiences with an ongoing multidisciplinary approach (#603)

Yoshiko Katayama 1 , Mariko Kitagawa 2
  1. Nagoya Memorial Hospital, Tempaku, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan
  2. Nagoya city University Scool of Nursing, Nagoya, Japan

Aims

This study was conducted to identify the nature of psychological suffering by patients with advanced cancer, from their subjective experiences.

Methods

We conducted participant observation and non-structured interviews with middle aged to elderly cancer patients attending a general hospital for treatment. The collected data was subjected to qualitative and descriptive analyses..

Results

Data was obtained from 8 patients aged from the 40s to 70s, with a variety of malignancies. We defined ‘psychological suffering’ as “the state of psychological tension and emotional and behavioural problems arising from psychological tension”.

As a result, we identified 38 subcategories and 26 main keywords related to the process moving from a ‘Prior to mental gear shifting’ to ‘Preparation for mental gear shifting’, and finally a ‘Mental gear shifting’ phase.

Conclusion

We confirmed that patients with advanced cancer mentally shift gears, from a concept of life and death as opposites to a concept of life and death coexisting together.