Korean J Adult Nurs.  2015 Feb;27(1):117-126. 10.7475/kjan.2015.27.1.117.

The Impact of Cancer Diagnosis and Its Treatment on Korean Women's Lives: A Meta-synthesis Study

• Suh EE

• KMID: 2298150
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.7475/kjan.2015.27.1.117

Abstract

PURPOSE
Korean women, who have come to the forefront at a risk of cancer, have been notable objects for qualitative nursing research in last a couple of decades. Given the imparity and varieties of those findings, this study was aimed to synthesize the impact of cancer diagnosis and its treatment on Korean women's lives using a qualitative meta-synthesis method.
METHODS
By searching five English-based databases and four Korean databases, 21 qualitative studies on Korean women's particular experiences of cancer diagnosis and treatment since 2000 were included. Using a meta-synthesis process by Sandelowski & Barroso (2007), the selected studies were synthesized for interpretive integration of the findings.
RESULTS
The meta-synthesis elicited three themes: detachment from the usualness, awareness of profound desires, and redefinition of every relation. With destructive experiences of a diagnosis and its treatments, Korean women felt apart from their everyday life, daily roles, and even from their own body. They then grasped a strong desire for life and for beauty, and reconfirmed the sense of mission for being a mother. Those changes made them to reconstruct all relations surrounded them.
CONCLUSION
The findings yield a substantive portrait of the given issue, which could be helpful for health care professionals.

MeSH Terms

Beauty
Delivery of Health Care
Diagnosis*
Female
Hand Strength
Humans
Missions and Missionaries
Mothers
Nursing Research
Qualitative Research