2007 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 48-56
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to identify the illness course experienced by patients with hematopoietic malignancy who have undergone hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, during the period from the onset to the post-transplantation, and to find ideas for recommended nursing care for the patients. We had semi-structured interviews with 8 such patients within 5-year survival, and the data was analyzed using the life history research method.
The illness courses experienced and narrated by the participants had the following 7 phases:（1）They see their symptoms lightly,（2）They suspect themselves to be seriously ill,（3）They are shocked and confused knowing they have an incurable disease, and fear death,（4）They hope for life and face up to their diseases,（5）They continue to receive treatment to live even though their physical and mental/emotional condition deteriorates through repeated treatment,（6）They start to fear death again because of increasing physical and mental/emotional suffering from hematopoietic stem cell transplantation,（7）They construct new lives fearing the recurrence of the disease and eventual death. Accordingly we were able to integrate the mental/emotional process of the patients from the illness onset up to the post-transplantation, which had been previously been regarded, separately.
From our result, it is possible to anticipate to some extent the mental/emotional phases which patients with hematopoietic malignancy have gone and will go through, and this enables the practice of appropriate and timely nursing care for them.
