SHIFTING PATTERNS OF SELF-CARE AND CAREGIVING DURING CHEMOTHERAPY.
Contributors: University of California, San Francisco.
Published: 1994
Number of pages: 330
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Oncology.
Description: This was a grounded theory study of family caregiving during cancer chemotherapy. Using an interactionist approach to role theory, a longitudinal study was designed, with its focus on the caregiver/care receiver dyad. Individual and joint interviews were conducted with nineteen caregivers and twenty patients across the course of chemotherapy. Most participants were interviewed three times.

Shifting patterns of self-care and caregiving was the core concept which emerged from the study. Early in the analysis, it became clear that caregiving could not be isolated from self-care in this population. Efforts to manage the demands posed by cancer treatment engaged both members of the dyad. Thus, the study phenomenon was reconceptualized from caregiving to family-based illness care, a concept which encompasses both self-care and caregiving. Twelve dimensions of illness care were identified. Persons with cancer and their family members develop patterns of illness care such that some dimensions of care are carried out primarily through self-care, some are carried out primarily through caregiving, and some are carried out collaboratively. These patterns shift so that at times the caregiving role expands and at other times the self-care role expands.

Family-based illness care during chemotherapy is carried out under ever-changing conditions. Fluctuation in conditions accounts for much of the shifting of patterns of self-care and caregiving. Conditions may change in a cyclical manner, in a progressive manner, or episodically. Changes in conditions correspond with shifting patterns of self-care and caregiving.

Patients and caregivers must align their respective roles so that illness care is carried out adequately and in a way that is congruent with the abilities and preferences of each person. Patients and caregivers work out their respective illness care roles through interactional processes. Included are interactions which determine the parameters of self-care and caregiving and those that adjust the course of action around a specific illness care task. When a satisfactory "fit" between the self-care and caregiving roles is worked out, role complementarity is present. When role complementarity breaks down, gaps or overlaps in illness care occur.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-01, Section: B, page: 0175.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO, 1994.

School code: 0034.