To Örebro University

Purpose/Objectives: To describe what women diagnosed with primary gynecologic cancer reported to be important during their interacion with the healthcare system.

Design: Qualitative.

Setting: A specialized gynecologic cancer care unit in central Sweden.

Sample: 14 women diagnosed with primary gynecologic cancer were recruited. The women had been referred to the specialized care unit for radiation or cytostatic therapy.

Methods: Tape-recorded interviews were transcnbed, coded, categoized, and analyzed.

Main Research Variables: Primary diagnosed women with cancer and their experience with quality of care during diagnosis and treatment.

Findings: Three partly overlapping categories (i.e., optima! care,good communication, and self-image and sexuality) were found to be of central importance in quality of health care. Participants stated that health care should be based on their own perceptions of the need for information and dialogue and how the disease and treatment would affect their health, self-image, and sexuality. Everyday conversations also were very important.

Conclusions: Central importance in health care for the women included both rational and human aspects. The primary need of participants was available, competent, and coordinated.

Implications for Nursing: Women with gynecologic cancer should be given individualized information and care to satisfy their individual needs and reinforce their self-image. Nurses have an important role in strengthening women´s  feelings of hope and supporting them in maintaining as positive a self-image as possible. Information and everyday conversation are of great significance. Sexuality should be an integral part of holistic care; to this end, inclusion of each woman's sexual partner may be helpful when discussions concerning sexuality occur.

Few studies have shed light on women's life situation after being informed of having recurrent ovanan cancer, The present study aimed to elucidate women's experiences of living with this knowledge. interviews were conducted with 12 women who were undergoing or had just completed chemotherapy, 5 to 10 months after learning or the recurrence. Data were collected and analyzed based on a life world perspective using a descriptive phenomenoiogical method. The women's experiences are described via 3 key constituents: being denied one's future while simultaneously hoping to be ble to delay the cancer's advancement, feeling alienated from both oneself and one's surroundings, and being responsible. The key constituents were integrated into the structure "living in limbo." The women lived on the threshoid to the unknown. They were preparing themselves both for a continued life and for death. "Living in limbo" can be described as a phase of a health-illness transition characterized by loneliness. The vulnerable position and existential struggle of these women should be focused upon in nursing. The sensitive dialogue is essential in these cases.

Most women suffering a recurrence of ovarian cancer return to the same department where their primary cancer was treated. The aim of this study was to explore what women with the first recurrence of ovarian cancer perceived as important in their interaction with the healthcare team. Interviews were conducted with 12 women at the end of a chemotherapy treatment. The interviews were subjected to qualitative content analysis. The findings stress the importance for the healthcare team to offer each woman the opportunity to obtain support to become familiar with the disease. This theme of becoming familiar with the disease was supported by the following sub-themes: being confirmed as a person, getting help in making sense of information regarding the disease and its treatment, having the opportunity to be involved and share responsibility, and feeling confident that medical expertise is good enough.

Becoming familiar with the disease was expressed as a process of understanding and assimilating the whole new situation. Optimal support from healthcare professionals was facilitated by establishing trusting relationships. Being confirmed and treated as a unique person was seen as a prerequisite to achieving familiarity with the disease. The women needed help to make sense of the information available. They stressed the importance of being able to influence their encounters with healthcare professionals in accordance with their own perspectives. Also of importance was having the opportunity to share the responsibility for their care and lives. The findings suggest that patients’ need should be identified repeatedly throughout the illness trajectory.

There has been an improvement in the effectiveness of chemotherapy agents to restrain recurring ovarian cancer, such that women live with the disease for longer than they used to. However, there is a knowledge gap concerning how patients define their world from a lifeworld perspective, when living with life-prolonging treatment. The aim of the study was to illuminate the phenomenon of living with life-prolonging treatment of recurring ovarian cancer. Four women were interviewed twice, once in 2003, three years after the first recurrence, and again in 2005. The method was based on Giorgi’s phenomenological method. A situated structure for each woman was followed by a transformation into a general structure for all women, which communicates the most invariant meaning of the phenomenon.

The general structure showed the growing threat to the women’s existence and their perception that time was short, yet extendable. Awareness of life’s limitedness evoked gratitude for the possibility to postpone death. The body’s strength was increasingly fragile and jeopardized the restraining of the disease. The amount of strength available was unpredictable, which meant a break in the rhythm of everyday life. Strength had to be captured and cared for.

The wish to share the meaning of the disease with others was expressed as unattainable. The women were unable to realize the desire to be seen as an example of someone living with ongoing treatments. In encounters with other people, the cancer-afflicted body stood out as a barrier to communication. Inability to share their experience was also manifested in the women’s encounters with caregivers, which were characterized by an objective attitude. The women met with a gradual compliance their caregivers’ inability to respond to them.