Cuidados Paliativos e Medicina

Abstrato

A Case Study "A Life with and beyond Cancer"

Jan Sitvast

Purpose: Developing an intervention with photography to support patients in their search for a meaningful and valued life with their disease.

Method: Pilot-testing a prototype of an intervention that had been developed for another target group. The research approach is a prototypical case study.

Results: Being photographed and being able to direct the kind of photographs helped the patient to reflect on her life with cancer, but also on her life beyond the disease.

Conclusions: The photographs mediated the patient’s story where otherwise words alone might not have been able to make sense of confused feelings. Nurses can look for creative ways to involve the patient and relevant others in the process of meaning giving as a first step in coping with the disease and its consequences.