Experiences of encounters with healthcare professionals through the lenses of families living with chronic illness

Liselott Årestedt, Carina Persson, Margareta Rämgård and Eva Benzein

Journal of Clinical Nursing, 2018, vol. 27, issue 3-4, 836-847

Abstract: Aims and objectives To describe and explore the experience of healthcare encounters in families living with chronic illness. Background Living with chronic illness is a family concern and often includes frequent encounters with healthcare professionals. These encounters affect how persons with illness and family members handle everyday life. Disease‐related explanations are perceived by healthcare professionals as being of higher importance than the actual experience of illness, even though patients are concerned with issues involving their everyday life. Design A descriptive design with a qualitative approach. Methods Narrative family interviews were conducted with twelve families, using a qualitative content analysis. Results One main category was indicated following analysis, specifically “The impact of an accompanying family member.” Additionally, three subcategories were revealed; “The importance of collaboration,” “Mutual understanding,” “A desire to be confirmed in one's illness”. Conclusions and relevance to clinical practice Having a participating family member increased the sense of power in families during encounters with healthcare professionals. This participation constitutes a level of support, making it easier for families to handle everyday life due to illness. Family members are, in most cases, included in discussions and decisions, both before and after encounters, and it should be a natural for healthcare professionals to invite them to the encounter too. This is an offer that may not fit every family, but the person with illness or the family should at least have the opportunity to choose.

Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14126

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:jocnur:v:27:y:2018:i:3-4:p:836-847

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Clinical Nursing from John Wiley & Sons
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().