• Journal of muscle and joint health
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.151-164
• /
• 2022

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the illness experiences of patients who had spinal surgery. Methods: Colaizzi's phenomenological method was used for the data analysis. Patients who had spinal surgery were included in this study. The data was collected between April and October 2022 by conducting a one-on-one, in-depth interview. Results: Five theme clusters were identified based on the illness experiences of patients who had spinal surgery: "An agonizing life changed by pain", "Efforts to alleviate the pain", "Surgery was determined to be the best way to relieve pain", "Recovered daily life after relieving pain caused by surgery", and "Dedicated to living a healthy, pain-free life". The analysis further yielded 20 themes. Patients used various treatment methods to relieve pain, but ultimately chose surgery due to unbearable pain. Patients who had spinal surgery felt grateful that they were feeling good and healthy because they could return to their normal daily lives. After all, the pain was relieved after the surgery. Even though some pain remained unrelieved, the patients had the hope of getting better through exercise and rehabilitation. Conclusion: This study provides an in-depth understanding and meaning of the illness experiences of patients who had spinal surgery and presents new perspectives on clinical practice. The findings of this study are expected to be useful in developing and applying systematic and customized nursing interventions before and after spinal surgery.

• Child Health Nursing Research
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.294-304
• /
• 1998

Illness is a situational crisis which affects entire family members. Children have different experiences and responses when their sibling has a cancer. there are many studies on sibling experiences to childhood cancer which have many problems in the USA. The main purpose of this study is to describe sibling experiences to childhood cancer accurately and coprehensively by collecting data from sibling to provide the data to develop nursing interventions for the families with childhood cancer. The data was collected from October 1 to November 6, 1995. A total of ten siblings with childhood cancer were interviewed. The meaningful contents were classified and categorized to four areas. Theses areas include knowledge and perception related to illness, changes in family life, changes in school life, and siblings' marturation. The results of this study were as follows 1. Knowledge and perception related to childhood cancer : Children had limited knowledge about illness and expressed the desire to tow more about sibling's illness. 2. Changes in family and school life : Children expressed loneness, emptiness, sadness, depression about seperation with the mother and sibling, family mood change, leisure activities and financial difficulites. Many children reported that their school performance had suffered since sibling's illness. 3. Maturation of children : Some positive outcoms related to having a sibling with a cancer are maturation, increased affection for the sibling, empathy for their parents. The results of this study indicate that it is important to develop comprehensive nursing intervention programs for the families with a childhood cancer.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.143-156
• /
• 1992

This descriptive study explored the health and illness concepts of preschoolers to provide understanding on which to build research. The subjects were convenience sample three to six year of age attending one art institute in Cheju city. Data were collected through semistructured interviews by author, Children were asked to draw two figures, one healthy and one ill persons. The drawings were not analysed to grasp the meaning as in a projective technique, but only to relate to their response. Data were coded and categorized by content analysis. The results of this study are summarized as follows : 1) Three year olds responded with some unrelated answers but well to questions related to their experiences of illness ; older participants answered questions related health and illness concepts more easily. Generally the levels of subjects' responses did not differ according to age and sex. 2) Preschoolers' answers about the cause, treatment and prevention of illness, and the meaning and promotion of health were coded and then classificated to 9 categories, (food, obedience to authoritys physical function, presence or absence of illness or symptoms, hygiene. treatment, traumatic injury, rest and germs). Food and obeidence to authority categories were most frequent responses the food category was associated with obeidence to authority because it seemed that the children follow the orders of their parents or other authority figures to eat or not to eat something This result was compatible with that of previous studies that preschoolers perceived illness as possible punishment for misbehavior. Participants except for one four year old boy did not suggest that germs cause illness. The children perceived themselves and their families as healthy even though they had symptoms of illness. 3) Preschoolers' health and illness concepts were. influenced by their experiences and related to their development that rules derived from authority and if not complied with, will bring punishment. These oonceptualizations may be the disparity that they perceived themselves and their families as healthy even though they were ill. A previous study by Perrin and Gerrity suggested that the level of children's illness concepts correlated with that of their physical causality and was lower than it. But the levels of health and illness concepts in this sample higher than those of the physical causality.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.6-18
• /
• 2011

Purpose: This study was done to explore the meaning and nature of life world for adolescents with epilepsy. The hermeneutic phenomenological method which was developed by van Manen was used. Methods: Participants were four boys and five girls, ages 13 to 18 being seen in a neurology outpatient department. Data were collected from iterative work with in-depth interviews from during the period from February to September, 2010. Contents of the interviews were tape-recorded with participant consent. Results: Essential themes that fit into the context of the 4 existential grounds of body, time, space and other people were: an illness that makes a hurt in one's heart rather than one's body, a change in the body that is not controllable, a future like thick fog, everyday life trapped in illness, a change of relationships, learning how to live with an illness. Conclusion: Findings reveal the life world of the adolescents is affected to varying degrees by the epilepsy. It is important for nurses to identify and address developmental issues and effects of the illness and to support reorientation in a disintegrated life situation. The result of this study will provide nurses with insights into these experiences and should help promote empathetic care.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.42 no.2
• /
• pp.226-235
• /
• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the subjective experiences of stigma among mentally ill persons. Methods: Phenomenological methodology was used for the study. Participants were twelve people with mental illness enrolled at the S community mental health center in GyeongGi-Do. Data were collected via in-depth interviews from August 30 to October 1, 2010 and analyzed using Colaizzi's framework. Results: Four themes and sixteen formulated meanings were identified for the stigma experiences of participants with mental illness. The four themes were 'Incapable of struggling against unfair treatment', 'Living as an outsider', 'Being constrained by oneself', 'Being in suspense over disclosure of oneself'. Conclusion: The results from this study underscore the need for an educational and awareness programs to reduce public stigma among the general population and self-stigma among people with mental illness. In addition, efforts are also needed to prioritize mental illness stigma as a major public health issue at the government and community level.

• Perspectives in Nursing Science
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.41-51
• /
• 2013

Purpose: This study was performed to understand the characteristics and the meaning of the illness experience of breast cancer survivors as basic data for the development of an intervention program. Methods: The participants were 25 breast cancer survivors who had completed treatment at a tertiary hospital in Seoul. Data were collected through in-depth and unstructured audio-recorded interviews by the investigator. The participants were asked to describe their illness experience. The data were analyzed according to Giorgi's method for phenomenological analysis. Results: The interview data were organized by theme into 6 categories that emerged from the analysis. The themes were acceptance of the illness, active coping with reality, gaining strength through the support of surrounding people, struggling to overcome a negative mindset, self-reflection, and the pursuit of a meaningful new life. Conclusion: We recommend the development of a survivorship program based on self-reflection, which can engender self-transcendence and spiritual well-being.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.72-80
• /
• 2019

Purpose: This study was done to explore the lived experiences in older Korean women with early stage of Parkinson's disease. The research question was "What is the meaning and nature of the older women's experiences who were diagnosed with Parkinson's disease?" Methods: In this study, we adopted van Manen's hermeneutic phenomenological approach to find the lived experiences of older women diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Six older women diagnosed with Parkinson's disease within five years participated, and data were collected through in-depth interviews. Results: Five fundamental lifeworld themes and seven subthemes emerged from the data. The first theme of corporeality had three subthemes: 'being shocked by an unexpected diagnosis', 'fewer things can be done due to the illness' and 'lost my prettiness'. The second theme representing relationality was 'hiding the illness because of others' whispering'. The temporality theme was 'fear of symptom aggravation'. The spatiality theme was 'being placed in a blind spot of information'. The last existential theme of material had 'obsession with drugs'. Conclusion: The results of this study provide an in-depth understanding of older womens experiences of living with Parkinson's disease. The findings can help develop interventions specific to these group of women to provide sufficient emotional support and accurate information.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.63 no.4
• /
• pp.155-181
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this study was to explore 1) the illness experiences, 2) health behaviors (causal thoughts), and 3) health beliefs (health behavior changes after cancer diagnosis) among Korean breast cancer survivors using focus groups, which is a form of qualitative research methods. Thus, this study intended to understand how the illness experiences and health beliefs are associated with health behaviors. Three focus groups composed of 16 breast cancer survivors living in Seoul and GyeongGi were conducted with 5 to 6 people in each group. For illness experiences, health beliefs, and health behaviors of breast cancer survivors, some major themes related to physical, behavioral, psychological, and social domains were identified. Understanding health beliefs and health behaviors for Korean breast cancer survivors will be an important step toward developing social work interventions for enhancing health promotion.

• Child Health Nursing Research
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.350-358
• /
• 2009

Purpose: This study was done to better understand how sick children and their families define chronic illness; what behaviors they used for managing chronic illness; and how they perceived the socio-cultural context of Korea. Methods: This study was a secondary analysis of qualitative studies. Articles on children with a chronic illness and their families located in electronic databases were selected for review. Twenty one qualitative studies were reviewed. Qualitative studies that had used an analysis tool, the Family Management Style Framework were reviewed. Results: Children with chronic illness and their families tended to accept illness as a negative outcome and thought that they were deprived of the context of normality. In the traditional Korean family style, parents-in-law demand absolute obedience from their daughter-in-law, leading to a conflict between the two parties, which, in turn, may have negatively affected their perceptions of chronic illness. Western and oriental medical treatments were used, and participants sought an array of folk remedies. Conclusion: Culturally specific findings can help to better understand the difficulties faced by children with a chronic illness and their families and can provide invaluable input into the development of culturally appropriate and sensitive nursing interventions.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.115-125
• /
• 2011

Objectives : The aim of this study is to investigate the relevant factors which determine the use of oriental healthcare services among subjects with chronic illnesses. Method : This study utilized the data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2005. Out of all the participants of the survey, 11,665 individuals who are older than 19 years old and have one or more chronic diseases were included in this study. Results : The factors that affect utilization of oriental healthcare services were significantly associated with gender, educational level, job, personal income, the number of chronic illnesses, experiences of nontreatment or delayed treatment and admission experiences for the last one year(p<.001). Although some of these factors need further studies, the determining factors for the use of oriental healthcare services are the presence of chronic illness and the number of chronic disease. That is, the chronically ill are more likely to seek oriental healthcare services. And the more chronic diseases the clients have the higher probability of seeking oriental healthcare services was found. Conclusions : The results suggest that the national integrated care services should be established for diverse development of policy regarding the quality of care of chronic illness and cost-effectiveness.