Date of Award
2004
Degree Type
Dissertation
First Advisor
Jean Miller
Abstract
Due to dramatic improvements in diagnosis, treatment options, and improved survival rates, the experience of cancer is changing. Little is known, however, about which factors facilitate positive adaptation for individuals who survive cancer. Research in the area of brain tumor survivorship is limited and provides minimal understanding of the survivor's experience. The purpose of this study was to describe the survivorship experience of adults who were one to four years posttreatment for a low-grade glioma brain tumor and to explore how family, friends, employers, and health care providers had been helpful in the transition back to life after treatment. Eight participants with a low-grade glioma brain tumor were asked to describe their experience of survivorship during one in-depth, audiotaped semistructured interview. Interviews were analyzed using Luborsky's (1994) method of thematic analysis. The following ten candidate themes were discovered: becoming stronger; dealing with headaches, seizures, and short term memory loss; staying positive; feeling anxious and/or depressed; marital and family distress; supportive family and friends; spiritual awareness; reappraisal of life; sensitive employers; and reassuring physician and wonderful nurses. These themes were not a singular aspect of the participants' lives but an accumulation of physical, psychological, social, and spiritual responses to changes that evolved from the brain tumor diagnosis and its treatment. The challenge for nurses is to find even better ways to enhance survivorship of cancer. The assessment and treatment of patients' psychosocial issues need to be integrated into the treatment plan in order to provide optimum care to patients with a brain tumor.
Recommended Citation
Bautista, Cynthia A., "Survivorship of a low-grade glioma brain tumor" (2004). Open Access Dissertations. Paper 1941.
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss/1941
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