Female Spouses and Their Preparation for the Death of Their Loved One: Preliminary Results of a Grounded Theory Research

Abstract

A patient's family is in the front row during their illness, as well as the period surrounding their death. The experience lived by family members during the palliative care period, between the diagnosis of a cancer and the death of their loved one, has too often been reduced to the concept of anticipatory grief. This concept is widely criticized because of its overgeneralization, and its limited capacity to explain the complex and socially grounded experience lived prior to the death of a loved one. The goal of this presentation is to present the preliminary results of a doctoral research project on the experience lived by female spouses when preparing for the death of their significant other from cancer. The focus on female spouses is based on the unique social position and perspective of women, as well as their greater emotional vulnerability during this period. Inspired by the grounded theory method of Charmaz (2016) and Corbin & Strauss (2015), the simultaneous process of data collection and data analysis will continue until theoretical saturation is achieved. Until now, three spouses were contacted. Preliminary results suggest that spouses are living mostly in the present time, living one day at a time. They try not to think too much about the future, while also unconsciously designing scenarios of their spouse's death. They are also grieving the past. They grieve their own life, the life of their loved one and their mutual plans about the future. However, despite their grief of the past, the spouses aren't grieving their loved one as was originally stated in the concept of anticipatory grief. To conclude: The results of this study will help understand how time is perceived by the spouses during the palliative care period, and how support for the patient's spouse could be improved during palliative care.