Paper
Saturday, July 24, 2004
Family Issues: Coping With Chronic Illness
Gloria Richards Gelmann, PhD, EdD, RN, CPNP/A, CS, College of Nursing, College of Nursing, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ, USA
| Learning Objective #1: Identify the differences in family members' responses to chronic illness |
| Learning Objective #2: Describe strategies that are of assistance to family issues surrounding a member diagnosed with a chronic illness |
Objective: A study to investigate experiences of families dealing with the crisis of having a member diagnosed as having a chronic illness. Design and Method: A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive study using a phenomenological approach. Merleau Ponty's Phenomenology and Van Manen's approach were used. Data were generated, etymological sources were found and existential descriptions from participants were obtained. A secondary analysis was done to further analyze the data collected. The individual disclosures of their private experiences were developed into theme clusters and subsequently into theme catagories. Sample: Consisted of fifteen couples and forty-two children, English speaking, between the ages of seven and nineteen years. Participants were interviewed individually in the hospital or at home. Findings: The theme categories were: chagrin, emotional devastation, lack of knowledge, change in relationships, what to disclose, how to cope. Conclusions: Through listening to the experiences of the family members the researcher was able to develop some strategies to assist them. These strategies were utilized and appeared to help the families in coping with the issue of chronic illness. Implications: Little has been done to assist families who encounter a chronic illness in one of their members. Through use of the strategies tried and others yet to be discovered, better coping mechanisms for families should result. Utilization of the findings of this study, and others to follow can help professional nurses to understand family experiences and help clients to face uncertain issues.
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Sigma Theta Tau International
July 22-24, 2004