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A qualitative exploration of the meaning of the term “survivor” to young women living with a history of breast cancer
There has been a recent increase in research considering the perceptions of the term “cancer survivor” held by individuals who have or have had cancer. This article explores the meaning of the term to young women living with a history of breast cancer. Twenty women participated in semi‐structured in...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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John Wiley and Sons Inc.
2018
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6001659/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29630750 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecc.12847 |
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author | Rees, S. |
author_facet | Rees, S. |
author_sort | Rees, S. |
collection | PubMed |
description | There has been a recent increase in research considering the perceptions of the term “cancer survivor” held by individuals who have or have had cancer. This article explores the meaning of the term to young women living with a history of breast cancer. Twenty women participated in semi‐structured interviews about their experience of breast cancer. The methodology was informed by social constructionist grounded theory. Three of the women interviewed said they would use the term survivor to describe themselves, but most of the women felt it did not fit with their experiences. The accounts of those who accepted and rejected the survivor identity are explored, and subthemes in the latter are “survivor as somebody else” and “cancer's ongoing presence.” This article calls into question the basing of intervention strategies on the notion of the “cancer survivor,” and the assumption that younger women favour the survivor identity. Participants struggled with the demand to live up to the ideal of the survivor, which implied a high degree of agency where in reality, cancer was a disempowering experience. Being labelled a survivor obscured ongoing impacts of cancer on the young women's lives. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6001659 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-60016592018-06-21 A qualitative exploration of the meaning of the term “survivor” to young women living with a history of breast cancer Rees, S. Eur J Cancer Care (Engl) Original Articles There has been a recent increase in research considering the perceptions of the term “cancer survivor” held by individuals who have or have had cancer. This article explores the meaning of the term to young women living with a history of breast cancer. Twenty women participated in semi‐structured interviews about their experience of breast cancer. The methodology was informed by social constructionist grounded theory. Three of the women interviewed said they would use the term survivor to describe themselves, but most of the women felt it did not fit with their experiences. The accounts of those who accepted and rejected the survivor identity are explored, and subthemes in the latter are “survivor as somebody else” and “cancer's ongoing presence.” This article calls into question the basing of intervention strategies on the notion of the “cancer survivor,” and the assumption that younger women favour the survivor identity. Participants struggled with the demand to live up to the ideal of the survivor, which implied a high degree of agency where in reality, cancer was a disempowering experience. Being labelled a survivor obscured ongoing impacts of cancer on the young women's lives. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2018-04-06 2018-05 /pmc/articles/PMC6001659/ /pubmed/29630750 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecc.12847 Text en © 2018 The Author. European Journal of Cancer Care Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Original Articles Rees, S. A qualitative exploration of the meaning of the term “survivor” to young women living with a history of breast cancer |
title | A qualitative exploration of the meaning of the term “survivor” to young women living with a history of breast cancer |
title_full | A qualitative exploration of the meaning of the term “survivor” to young women living with a history of breast cancer |
title_fullStr | A qualitative exploration of the meaning of the term “survivor” to young women living with a history of breast cancer |
title_full_unstemmed | A qualitative exploration of the meaning of the term “survivor” to young women living with a history of breast cancer |
title_short | A qualitative exploration of the meaning of the term “survivor” to young women living with a history of breast cancer |
title_sort | qualitative exploration of the meaning of the term “survivor” to young women living with a history of breast cancer |
topic | Original Articles |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6001659/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29630750 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecc.12847 |
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