The Lived Experience of Suffering of Family with Cancer Patients: Parse’s Human Becoming Research Method

Abstract

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution , and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to discover the structure of the lived experience of suffering of families with cancer patients to develop a theoretical foundation that can be used to reinforce nursing practice for cancer patients and their families. Methods: A qualitative study was performed using Parse's research method. Participants were four families with cancer patients. From February 2009 through April 2010, data were collected via dialogical-engagement between participants and the researcher and analyzed through the extraction-synthesis and heuristic interpretation processes. Results: The structure was identified as follows. The families' lived experience of suffering was a process through which they experienced a psychological shock of cancer diagnosis and difficulties associated with reshuffled roles among family members, and made efforts to care for the patients. Conclusion: Amidst sadness, pain, anxiety, guilt, fear and agony, the families focused on the human-health-universe aspect and found meanings of their experiences as love, triumphant, responsibility and hope. As such, the study results suggest that the suffering of families with cancer patients is a human becoming process of positive transformation. 서 론 1. 연구의 필요성 우리나라의 3대 사망원인은 암, 뇌혈관질환, 심장질 환으로 지난 10년간 뇌혈관질환, 심장질환 등에 의한 사망은 점점 감소 추세에 있는 반면, 암으로 인한 사망 은 점차 증가하여 2013년 암으로 사망한 사람이 총 75,334명으로 전체 사망자의 28.3%를 차지하고 있다(1). 의학기술의 발전과 국가의 암 검진 사업으로 인하여 암 의 고통에서 벗어나고는 있으나 여전히 증가하고 있는 추세로 2015년 국립암센터 통계자료에 의하면, 2012년 신규 암환자 수가 2011년 암환자 수 대비 1.8%, 2002년 의 암환자 수 대비 91.5%가 증가하면서 암 발생률은 평 균수명까지 남자 5명 중 2명, 여자 3명 중 1명이 발생되 는 것으로 추정하고 있다(2). 이러한 생명을 위협하는 암 질환은 새로운 치료법이 개발되고 있음에도 비교적 긴 시간의 치료와 관리가 요구됨으로써 환자에게 큰 스