The Effect of Narrative Approach in a Relation of Nurse―Patient with Permanent Stoma Informed of Cancer Recurrence/Metastasis

Abstract

Abstract

In the present study, a narrative approach was made between a WOC-certified nurse and 7 patients with recurrent, metastatic cancer and permanent stoma, and how this approach was useful in helping the patients form a new way of thinking was evaluated. Following learning they have cancer, the patients were anxious and distressed. The study was designed as a qualitative study based on patients' narrative and a self-reflection diary kept by the nurse in response to patients' narratives. It is a practical nursing study that links research and practical nursing activities.

Patients started their narratives with the nurse with the impact they received upon being informed of their illness. Thereafter, they found a meaning for the creation of stoma and ended by discovering a meaning in their cancer experience in new aspects of their life. Through the narrative approach, the nurse was able to discover new aspects in each patient, and her understanding of the meaning of stoma for patients expanded. She was able to understand the possibility of human beings who grow and develop themselves through cancer experience. Findings obtained in the present study suggested that the narrative approach can be introduced into practice as a nursing intervention that promotes the growth and development of both patients and nurses through their interactions.