Decay, Transformation, and Growth: Meaning-Making Processes of Patients With Acute Leukemia Within the First Year After Diagnosis or Relapse.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: To explore the processes through which patients construct their meanings of acute leukemia (AL).

RESEARCH APPROACH

An exploratory design was employed using serial, in-depth interviews, guided by Smith's Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis approach.

SETTING

Two inpatient hematology clinics in the United Kingdom.

PARTICIPANTS

10 adult patients with AL.

METHODOLOGIC APPROACH

Two serial interviews were conducted with each participant, two to four weeks apart, within the first year of diagnosis or post-relapse.

FINDINGS

AL creates a state of imbalance, which may initiate a search for new equilibrium. Patients' journeys toward making sense of their illness may involve three interchangeable processes.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings of this contextually and methodologically novel study highlight the complex nature of sense-making for patients experiencing AL.

INTERPRETATION

Nurses can take valuable lessons on how to manage the invisibility of AL, enhance trust in healthcare professionals, address the impact of isolation, and facilitate the making-sense processes of patients in ways that favor their short- and long-term psychosocial adjustment.