Unclearness Concerning Illness and Difficulty of Being Understood: Experience of a Nurse, a Young Woman with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Abstract

This study analyzed the illness experience of a nurse, a young woman (Ms. F) suffering from systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in line with her own experience. Based on that, this study aimed to describe an aspect of what it means to live a chronic illness and the factors which bring about such experience from the ill person’s point of view. Through the careful description of Ms. F's experience narrated in the interview, it was found that “unclearness concerning illness” and “difficulty of being understood” played pivotal roles in her illness experience. Ms. F was trying to cope with her experienced unclearness, at first by gathering a variety of information, and then by using her judgment that was acquired through her groping in the illness experience. It was also pointed out that the difficulty of being understood was related to the culture that demanded heroism from nurses and people’s general assumption that patients should be able to explain their illnesses and their physical conditions in an understandable manner.