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Biomedical subjects

R H Steeves

Publications and source records attributed to R H Steeves.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1995

The significance of suffering in cancer care.

Understanding suffering as a possible meaning of cancer for patients and families is a necessary part of cancer nursing care. This article presents a discussion of suffering as a possible meaning of cancer for patients and family members. Suffering is addressed in the context of its definition as an experience of the whole person. First, to illustrate suffering, a narrative of a young man treated for leukemia with bone marrow transplantation is presented. The narrative focuses on the man's suffering as he struggles to make meaning of what has happened to him, a struggle that ends with his death. The second part of the article presents eight aphorisms or succinct principles of suffering. Each aphorism is discussed with examples from the case narrative and related literature.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Nurses' views of the coping of patients.

The findings of a study that explored the beliefs, assumptions and ideas nurses have about the coping of patients are presented. Interactive interviews with 26 nurses were used to elicit explanations of the meaning of coping and stories from their practice that illustrated coping. Analysis of the interview transcripts revealed three themes in the form of idioms or particular and different ways of talking about coping. Each idiom represented a different perspective or view of coping. The first idiom represented a view of coping as a rational, cognitive problem-solving response to illness. The nurses attributed, and thus valued, this view to science. In the second idiom the nurses spoke of coping as permeated with values that contrasted with the prior view of coping as a rational process. In the final idiom the nurses spoke of coping as courage--they told stories of patients who had faced existential situations with strength and will. The focus of this idiom was on issues of spirituality, struggle, personal meaning and acceptance. After each idiom is delineated and illustrated by data, the discussion is concentrated on the orientational and ontological metaphors that underlie them. Interpretation of the origin and construction of these different ways of talking about coping, and their underlying metaphorical meanings, is made in the context of cultural and subcultural influences.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1992

Patients who have undergone bone marrow transplantation: their quest for meaning.

This study investigates the processes of "meaning-making" and life interpretation as experienced by a group of patients who underwent bone marrow transplantation. Six adult male patients were followed until the 100th day after their transplantation or until their deaths. A hermeneutic study of their experiences revealed that they manipulated the meanings of their lives and sought meaning in their lives in two different ways: (1) they renegotiated their social position in a new situation, and (2) they tried to reach an understanding of their experiences as a whole.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1986

The experience of suffering: conceptual clarification and theoretical definition.

This paper is concerned with the phenomenon of human suffering and is an attempt to justify and begin theoretical development of this phenomenon for nursing science. The paper is divided into three sections. The first section describes the interest of nursing science in the phenomenon and critically examines relevant literature in order to further conceptualize development and clarification. This section concludes with a theoretical definition of suffering derived from this critique. Suffering is defined as an individual's experience of threat to self and is a meaning given to events such as pain or loss. The second section elaborates on this definition and examines how it can inform theoretical discussion in two areas with import for nursing--the patient's experience of suffering and the nurse's experience of patient suffering. The final section briefly considers some implications for clinical research.

Culture↗