• African health sciences · Sep 2016

    Experiences of patients undergoing chemotherapy - a qualitative study of adults attending Uganda Cancer Institute.

    • Peter B Wampaalu, Lars E Eriksson, Allen Naamala, Rose C Nabirye, and Lena Wettergren.
    • Department of Nursing, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.
    • Afr Health Sci. 2016 Sep 1; 16 (3): 744749744-749.

    BackgroundCancer is a global public health challenge and how patients in countries with poor healthcare infrastructure experience cancer treatment is largely unknown.PurposeThe objective of this study was to describe adult Ugandan cancer patients' experiences of undergoing chemotherapy treatment.MethodologyUsing a qualitative descriptive design, seven in-patients with varying cancer diagnoses at the Uganda Cancer Institute were interviewed about their experiences of undergoing chemotherapy treatment; the interviews were transcribed and analysed thematically.ResultsThe analysis resulted in nine subthemes, which were categorized under three main themes: 'experiences related to the body', with the subthemes dry and sensitive skin, changes in eating and bowel habits, fever and feelings of abnormal body sensation; 'thoughts and feelings', with four subthemes reflecting the psychosocial impact of chemotherapy; and 'actively dealing with discomfort', with three subthemes describing how patients dealt with side effects, such as by sticking to a diet.ConclusionReceiving chemotherapy treatment is difficult, and the side effects negatively influenced patients' bodies and moods. Dealing actively with discomfort and accepting negative impacts in hope of a cure helped the participants manage the acute complications related to the treatment. We recommend the development of interventions to ease discomfort due to chemotherapy.

      Pubmed     Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…

What will the 'Medical Journal of You' look like?

Start your free 21 day trial now.

We guarantee your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.