Illness, identity and vocation in primary bone cancer: A narrative analysis of three types of work.
Published: 2006
Language: eng
Number of pages: 197
ISBN-13: 9780494219775
Description: Background and rationale. People with primary bone cancer typically are young (usual age of onset 16-35 years old) and undergo arduous treatment regimens. The current standard of care (tumour resection and limb reconstructive surgery with or without chemotherapy) achieves survival rates in excess of 60 per cent, but also results in significant residual disability at a time when patients are choosing career paths, establishing independence and embarking on new roles. To date, the nature of the relationship between experiences of osteosarcoma illness and experiences of vocation has remained unclear. This study sought to examine this relationship.Methods. This qualitative study employed a narrative methodology informed by postmodern narrative theory. In-depth focused open-ended interviews with 14 bone tumour survivors were conducted. Audio tapes of interviews were transcribed and analyzed for story typology and thematic content via constant comparison.Findings. Respondents offered accounts of three types of 'work' in which they engaged: 'illness work', 'identity work' as well as 'vocational work'. Osteosarcoma illness constituted a crisis in their lives, one which necessitated considerable illness work. The all-consuming nature of illness work meant that respondents were forced to stop vocational work for a significant period of time. The crisis of illness also precipitated 'identity work': they portrayed themselves as active sufferers and moral agents, rather than passive victims who simply endure. Respondents recounted a process of transformation, of 'becoming other' to who they had been prior to illness. When they re-entered the vocational sphere, they told of their changed relationships to vocation.Conclusions. This study offers a re-conceptualization of 'work' and the notion of 'return to work'. Rather than experiencing a mere interruption to their vocational lives, respondents told of re-entering the vocational sphere from a different position from whence they left. The study methodology and substantive findings hold implications for clinician-patient interactions as well as for the broader arena of 'return to work', in terms of both practice and policy.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-01, Section: B, page: 0223.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Toronto, 2006.

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