Despite the continuous advances in cancer treatment, many patients undergoing cancer treatment still suffer because of inability to find
meaning
in their treatment experiences. Nurses involved also suffer because they prioritize the implementation of treatment protocols rather than providing holistic care. Therefore, special care is needed in clinical settings. This report aimed to demonstrate helpfulness and possibility of “caring partnership” with patients in the treatment phase on the basis of Margaret Newman's theory of health as expanding consciousness.
Caring partnership
is a nursing intervention in a unitary and relational perspective that helps patients and nurses make a difference. For this intervention, patients need to recognize their own pattern in the relationship to exert their
own strengths
in finding
meaning
to their cancer treatment experience and so their lives, while nurses are encouraged to partner with them, trusting patients' own power and becoming a
rich environment
for them. Hence, dialog is necessary to facilitate patients'
pattern recognition
in process of
the patient-nurse partnership
. Three cases are presented for each treatment phase (perioperative, chemotherapy treatment, and prolonged postoperative self-care management). Through
caring partnership
with an oncology certified nurse, the patients found
meaning
in their treatment experiences and exerted their
own inner strength
to establish a new way of life, and the nurses reconfirmed what nursing was. From the theoretical viewpoint,
caring partnership
was helpful for patients in distress and was possible in clinical settings even with partial involvement during a treatment phase.
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