Psychosocial experiences in the context of life-threatening illness: The cardiac rehabilitation patient

One of the most prevalent life-threatening illnesses is heart disease. The initial trauma of being diagnosed with a life-threatening illness or having a cardiac event can begin a psychosocial chain reaction that results in a transformation of the lives of these patients. The goal of our study was to...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Palliative & supportive care 2015-06, Vol.13 (3), p.749-756
Main Authors: Holder, Gerard N., Young, William C., Nadarajah, Sheeba R., Berger, Ann M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
Angina pectoris
Attitude to Death
Cardiovascular disease
Comorbidity
Female
Heart
Heart Diseases - psychology
Heart Diseases - rehabilitation
Humans
Illnesses
Male
Original Articles
Patients
Psychology
Qualitative Research
Quality of life
Rehabilitation
Survivors - psychology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:One of the most prevalent life-threatening illnesses is heart disease. The initial trauma of being diagnosed with a life-threatening illness or having a cardiac event can begin a psychosocial chain reaction that results in a transformation of the lives of these patients. The goal of our study was to investigate the lived experiences of psychosocial healing in rehabilitation of cardiac patients using a qualitative written interview. A purposive sample of 14 cardiac event survivors was recruited. Participants were interviewed after informed consent and screening. We used a qualitative analysis and model-revision approach similar to the procedure outlined by Charmaz (2006). Participants consistently mentioned that a heightened awareness of mortality was a motivating factor that led to participants focusing more on their family and relationships, having an enhanced outlook on life, and making healthy lifestyle changes. If clinicians are able to employ a measure to better understand the nature of a patient's progression from cardiac event to successful recovery, interventions such as cardiac rehabilitation can be implemented earlier and more effectively during the course of the illness and recovery phases of treatment. Theoretically, this early detection of a patient's progression could reduce the time spent recovering from a cardiac event, and it would allow treatments for these conditions to better alleviate the psychosocial concerns faced by patients.
ISSN:1478-9515
1478-9523
DOI:10.1017/S1478951514000583