Original research: an investigation of life with end stage renal disease: sociocultural case studies analysis.

The goal of this research was to gain an integrated understanding of the lives of people with end stage renal disease (ESRD) requiring hemodialysis (HD)--one that included cultural, institutional and historical contexts. In this research a sociocultural analysis of four cases of everyday life with ESRD offered a situated understanding of life with this disease. This study revealed that life with ESRD is work. Moreover, while people living with ESRD do the bulk of that work, family also work to "live" with ESRD. Biomedically-based knowledge can be enriched by incorporating two relevant sources of knowledge: participants and participants' significant others. The addition of these sources of knowledge broadens health care practitioners' understanding of ESRD as it is "lived," and, so informed, practitioners can better provide the kinds of education and support that will enhance the lives of people with this illness.