Suffering and internal struggle of the recipients who received the liver transplant from a living donor

Abstract

This study was conducted for the purpose of exploring the suffering and internal struggle felt by recipients, and obtaining suggestions for nursing intervention to provide support, while focusing on liver transplants from living donors among adults. The participants in this study consisted of 11 adult recipients who had undergone a liver transplant from a living donor at three university hospitals. The data collected by semistructured interviews were transcribed, and then analyzed by the use of content analysis. Analysis of data identified 21 codes and 8 subcategories, and then 3 categories were emerged: Physical uncertainty (fear of dying, restrictions on daily life, sense of poor health), Fluctuations in sense of self-worth (sense of indebtedness, sense of physical collapse, apprehension), Loss resulting from undergoing transplant (economic burden, loss of roles). The results suggest that roles for nurses to support the recipients include caring for physical uncertainty, supporting their free decision-making regarding transplant option, and assisting the informed consent process as a basis for the decision-making. In addition, the advocator for the recipients, who continuously cares for the recipients from the time of transplant surgery through discharge, was expected as a role of nurses.