Qualitative health research
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The results of this exploratory study reflect a shift from public health studies that aim to examine the risk and prevalence of burn injury, toward eliciting survivors' subjective meaning-making processes beyond the injury event. We drew on a narrative framework to explore how young survivors' experiences of burn injury led to reconstructions of self and shifts in thinking about others and the world. ⋯ A multidimensional and relational framework for resilience acknowledges the "deficient," but also recognizes the pathways to growth, healing, meaning, and purpose. This shift toward person-centered meanings has value in informing interventions beyond the immediate "wound care," toward the survivors' lifelong (re)negotiation of identity, appearance, psychological adjustment, and social reintegration.