Objectives
Cancer has a significant impact on the psychosocial-spiritual well-being of cancer patients and their family caregivers, which often extends into long-term survivorship. The ways people make meaning from the cancer experience have been associated with differential adjustment outcomes. This has not been widely explored in the Australian cultural and religious context, or with patients alongside carers. This study aimed to qualitatively explore meaning-making processes of Australian patients with cancer and their carers.
Sample
Participants were 10 dyads from Australia, comprised of individuals diagnosed with cancer within the past 5 years, and their carers.
Procedures
Each patient-carer dyad participated in one semi-structured interview, with interviews ranging from 50 to 90 minutes long. A sample of 6-20 interviews is suggested for studies exploring personal experiences (Braun and Clarke, 2013). Reflexive thematic analysis and a deductive approach were used to analyse patient and carer responses separately.
Results
The theme causal attributions included three subthemes: what is the point of trying to understand why, the cancer gene has been activated, and what you breathe, eat and drink. The theme primary appraisals had no subthemes. The theme meaning-making processes included five subthemes: I can’t make sense of it, I had a very real sense that God was with me, prayer is talking to God, contributing and connecting, and I took it as a blessing. The theme meanings-made included four subthemes: a heightened sense of mortality, making the most of life, deepened spirituality and/or sense of purpose, and new relationship with self and others. Some patient-carer differences were observed at the subtheme level.
Conclusion and clinical implications
Meaning-making experiences may differ between patients and carers, and between and within cultural and religious contexts. This highlights the unique needs of carers as well as the importance of contextualising interventions that aim to promote adaptive meaning-making.