Patient Experience Of Illness Research Articles

The healthcare experience of prostate cancer patients: exploring the intersection of age and gender

Although researchers have conducted extensive studies of the psychoso­cial impacts of prostate cancer and its treatment on men’s bodies, mascu­linity and sexuality, little attention has been devoted to the intersection of gender and age in the healthcare experience of this illness. Based on data collected through direct observation in four French public hospitals, and 65 semi-directive interviews with prostate cancer patients, their relatives and healthcare professionals, this article aims to examine how age and gender shape care pathways. We argue that combining the concept of hegemonic masculinity with an intersectional approach may provide an adequate theoretical framework for analysing the plurality of men’s pros­tate cancer healthcare experience. Four steps of the patient care process are successively analysed to assess how the patient experience of illness may be influenced by power relations that interact with individual charac­teristics: screening, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up care.

The patient experience of illness, treatment, and change, during intensive community treatment for severe anorexia nervosa

ABSTRACTThis study explores experiences of intensive community treatment, illness, and change among patients with severe anorexia nervosa (sAN), particularly seeking to understand the processes involved in change and inability to change. A qualitative design with purposive semi-stratified sampling, using semi-structured interviews and interpretive phenomenological analysis, investigated in detail the experiences of five participants. Participants all had sAN at the start of treatment and represented a spectrum of outcomes from deterioration to full recovery. Six super-ordinate themes emerged from the analysis: treatment experience, function of anorexia, self-criticism versus self-acceptance, isolation versus connection, hopelessness versus hope, and stuckness versus change. Results describe the valued function of the illness, barriers to change, the lengthy struggle for change, and how this can be supported by intensive community-based treatment. Necessary ingredients in the process of change, arising from the analysis, are proposed. We conclude that the experiences of these patients reflect the particular functions of AN for each individual, and that both clinical deterioration and full recovery can occur with prolonged intensive community treatment.

Development, Experience, and Expression of Meaning in Genetic Counselors' Lives: an Exploratory Analysis.

Genetic counselors routinely engage with patients and families who grapple with questions of meaning while making decisions about genetic risk. Research and theory demonstrate genetic counselors gain important personal insights through their work and develop professionally from self-reflective practice regarding their beliefs and values. Data are lacking, however, about the nature of the meaning genetic counselors bring to their profession and how they directly experience and/or navigate issues of meaning within clinical practice over time. Accordingly, a national sample (N = 298) of practicing genetic counselors completed a brief survey assessing their demographic characteristics and willingness to participate in a semi-structured telephone interview exploring their views on meaning as they relate to their clinical work and professional development. Sixty-eight individuals of varied experience levels were interviewed about: 1) how they define a meaningful life for themselves; 2) lifetime sources of influence on their sense of meaning; 3) how they experience meaning within both personal and professional contexts; 4) work-related contexts that reaffirm and challenge their sense of meaning; and 5) how their sense of meaning has changed over time. Twenty-five interviews were analyzed using Consensual Qualitative Research methods, at which point, data saturation was reached. Five themes, 32 domains, and 29 categories were extracted. Common findings include: importance of satisfying relationships; helping others; personal fulfillment; personal and patient experiences of illness and loss; religious and/or spiritual foundations; value conflicts; competing obligations; challenges to meaning; development of empathy; resiliency; and increased humility. Results suggest the importance of professional venues for discussions of meaning (e.g., genetic counseling program curricula, continuing education, and peer supervision/consultation). Additional findings, practice implications, and research recommendations are presented.

Graphic medicine: comics as medical narrative

Among the growing number of works of graphic fiction, a number of titles dealing directly with the patient experience of illness or caring for others with an illness are to...

Moral perception and the pursuit of medical philosophy.

This paper begins by examining the claim that the practice of medicine is essentially a moral endeavor. According to this view, all clinical practice has moral content, and each clinical situation has a moral dimension. I suggest that in order to recognize this moral dimension, clinicians must engage in an interpretive process, and that they must be able to interpret clinical data in ethical terms. However, clinicians often lack the 'moral perception' required to appreciate this moral dimension. I will argue that physicians lack moral perception when the clinical data they are given do not offer sufficient opportunity for interpretation. This paper draws on the work of Merleau-Ponty to suggest that this loss of interpretation is, paradoxically, the result of the way that patients experience illness. This thesis may be productive, first, because it suggests opportunities to explore the process of moral perception. This thesis also suggests ways for ethicists and educators to enhance clinicians' perception of the ethical dimensions of clinical practice. Finally, the concept of moral perception, when grounded in the patient's experience of illness, creates a fruitful area of inquiry that warrants inclusion in what may someday be the philosophy of medicine's canon.