Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
By construing body and illness only in terms of cells, organs and
systems, it tends to arrive at an understanding of the disease
processes, without necessarily achieving an understanding of illness
as the experience of an embodied, suffering subject. Corner (1996)
recommended a counter culture to the dominating biomedical
construction of cancer care in which survival rates, levels of toxicity
for any given treatment and prognosis in terms of response rate are
the dominant constructs of treatment and care. She argued for a
culture which is centred on the individuals’ everyday experience of
living with cancer, through and after cancer treatment.
Given that there have to be ways to make the subjective
experience of illness more intelligible to stakeholders, one could
argue that the first step to achieving this goal is the identification of
such experiences for it is only after they have been identified that
the issue of sustainment can be addressed. The study of illness
experience can, therefore, significantly contribute to the body of
knowledge by focussing on the interrelations between biology,
emotions and the body (Pierret, 2003). Often the role of the health
care professional is to help people live a life that is as good as
possible. To fulfil this goal they need information about the lived
experience to enable them to offer support and caring that has
meaning to affected patients.
The profile of cancer has been raised recently both through the
media and the publication of reports and Government policies.
Although many patients report positively on their experience of
cancer care, there are still too many who claim they did not receive
the information and support they needed. The first National Cancer
Patient Survey (2002) showed wide variations in the quality of care
delivered across the country. Recently NICE (2004) have
recommended that research funders should invest in longitudinal
studies of patient and carer experiences and expectations of illness
and health and social care, to describe changes in perspectives as
illness evolves and the best ways of meeting needs at different
points in time.
The trend of shortened hospital stay has moved the focus of care
from the hospital to the community, with colorectal patients
returning home following major abdominal surgery after six to
seven days. Several studies have indicated that some patients with
cancer felt abandoned by healthcare professionals upon completion
of this stage of their treatment (Kjeldson, Thorson, Whalley and
Kronberg, 1999; Olsson, Bergbom and Bosaeus, 2002). Therefore
how much regard is given to the physical and psychosocial impact
of colorectal cancer and specifically patient’s experiences when
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