School of Nursing and Human Sciences, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland.
Department of Psychology, Maynooth University, Co. Kildare, Ireland.
J Cancer Surviv. 2019 Feb;13(1):43-55. doi: 10.1007/s11764-018-0726-4. Epub 2018 Dec 8.
Self-management may help cancer survivors to better deal with challenges to their physical, functional, social and psychological well-being presented by cancer and its treatment. Nonetheless, little is known about how people integrate cancer self-management practices into their daily lives. The aim of this study was to describe and characterise the processes through which head and neck cancer (HNC) survivors attempt to integrate self-management into their daily lives following primary treatment.
Using a purposeful critical case sampling method, 27 HNC survivors were identified through four designated cancer centres in Ireland and participated in face-to-face semi-structured interviews. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis.
Six themes describing HNC survivors' attempts to integrate self-management into their lives following treatment were identified: grappling with having to self-manage, trying out self-management strategies, becoming an expert self-manager, struggling to integrate self-management strategies into daily life, avoiding recommended self-management and interpreting self-management.
This is the first study to describe HNC survivors' attempts to integrate self-management into their daily lives following primary treatment. The findings indicate that HNC survivors exhibit highly individualised approaches to self-management integration and abandon self-management strategies that fail to meet their own specific needs.
Survivors may benefit from skills training and structured support to assist their transition between in-patient care and having to self-manage after primary treatment, and/or ongoing support to deal with persistent and recurring challenges such as eating difficulties and fear of recurrence.
自我管理可以帮助癌症幸存者更好地应对癌症及其治疗带来的身体、功能、社会和心理方面的挑战。尽管如此，人们对癌症幸存者如何将自我管理实践融入日常生活知之甚少。本研究旨在描述和描述头颈部癌症（HNC）幸存者在接受主要治疗后试图将自我管理融入日常生活的过程。
使用有目的的关键案例抽样方法，通过爱尔兰的四个指定癌症中心确定了 27 名 HNC 幸存者，并对他们进行了面对面的半结构化访谈。采访进行了录音、转录，并使用主题分析进行了分析。
确定了六个描述 HNC 幸存者在接受治疗后试图将自我管理融入生活的主题：努力自我管理、尝试自我管理策略、成为自我管理专家、努力将自我管理策略融入日常生活、避免推荐的自我管理和解释自我管理。
这是第一项描述 HNC 幸存者在接受主要治疗后试图将自我管理融入日常生活的研究。研究结果表明，HNC 幸存者在将自我管理融入日常生活的过程中表现出高度个性化的方法，并放弃了不符合自己特定需求的自我管理策略。
幸存者可能受益于技能培训和结构化支持，以帮助他们在住院治疗和主要治疗后自我管理之间过渡，以及/或提供持续支持，以应对持续存在的挑战，如进食困难和担心复发。
