Fieldwork as a Bridge from Cancer Diagnosis to Survivorship

Baldwin, Celeste Marie

Monday, 22 July 2013: 2:10 PM

Celeste Marie Baldwin, PhD, RN, CNS
Allied Health, The University of Hawaii Maui College, Kahului, HI

Learning Objective 1: 1. The Learner will be able to demonstrate advanced knowledge of the life of a cancer survivor from the perspective of life after treatment ends.

Learning Objective 2: 1. The learner will be able to verbalize the aspects of the nursing model by Helen Erikson.

Purpose: The purpose is to give voice to cancer survivors on Maui and Oahu suffering from cancer. As they are now free of daily treatments, it is our goal to understand using grounded theory how the role of the nurse by Erickson, Tomlin, and Swain affect the daily lives of cancer survivors as they have moved on with their lives to rebuild who they are. This qualitative inquiry seeks what it is like to be the patient that was at one time facing death and yet now is well enough to return home.

Methods: Participants will be interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide to move the patient through the process of explaining their lives. Each interview session will last about two hours and will be audio recorded. Data will be transcribed verbatim, and content analysis will then be performed for emergent themes.

Results: No results are available at this time. The study will close by May 1, 2012. Results will be presented at the conference once compiled.

Conclusion: The cancer survivor is in the unique situation of imbalance as they seek to recover from what may be considered by many in the field of healthcare as a post-traumatic event. When caring for cancer survivors, nurses have been asked to see the patient at critical points in treatment only without attention to the individual needs of each person. Patients are required to trust their provider in healthcare and seem to have an extremely strong relationship with oncology nurses along the entire trail of treatments both positive and negative along the way. One hunch in caring for oncology patients through the years is the notion that this strong bond with oncology nurses may serve to be a route to be studied, transformed, or mimicked. It remains unclear.

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