The Hope Experience of Older Bereaved Women Who Cared for a Spouse With Terminal Cancer

Abstract

In this study we explore the experience and processes of hope of older women who were bereaved after caring for a spouse with terminal cancer, and we develop a tentative, emerging theory of their hope experience. We used constructivist grounded theory methods. We conducted 30 open-ended, in-depth, audiotaped interviews with 13 western Canadian women, aged 60 to 79 years, within the 1st year of bereavement, and collected 12 hope diaries. Data were analyzed using constant comparative analysis. Participants defined hope as a gradual process of regaining inner strength and building self-confidence to make sense of their completely changed situations. They were learning to stay positive and move ahead with their lives. The participants' main concern was losing hope, which they dealt with by searching for new hope through finding balance, new perspectives, and new meaning and purpose. The emerging theory is conceptualized as a spiral within the complex social context of bereavement after caregiving.

The Psychosocial Context of Bereavement for Older Women Who Were Caregivers for a Spouse With Advanced Cancer

“…During initial coding of the data from the grounded theory study of hope (Holtslander & Duggleby, 2009), the importance of a psychosocial context emerged as impacting the experience of hope. As described by Charmaz (2006), a grounded theory is based in the social context and situation of the participants.…”

“…A difficult caregiving experience had physical and mental health consequences in bereavement (Brazil, Bedard, & Willison, 2003;Grande, Farquhar, & Barclay, 2004), especially for older women who have lost a spouse (Ferrario, Cardillo, Vicario, Balzarini, & Zotti, 2004). This paper reports the results of a secondary thematic analysis of data collected during 2006 and 2007 for a constructivist grounded theory study of hope for 13 older women bereaved following caregiving for a spouse with terminal cancer (Holtslander & Duggleby, 2009). The difficult spiral of moving forward in a search for new hope depended on the psychosocial context of each woman.…”

Finding Benefit in Bereavement among Family Cancer Caregivers

“…Most studies include only spousal/partner caregivers, rendering comparison by spousal status impossible. 16,18 In the few studies that have compared, effects of this variable have been inconsistent: greater benefit finding was found among spousal caregivers in some, 26 with others finding no difference by spousal status. 12 Although cancer is more common with older age, because adulthood cancer can occur at any age, spousal status is not a mere proxy for age, which may carry implications independent of age per se that influence the benefit finding in bereavement.…”

“…Existing bereavement studies are mostly mixed with regard to cause of death. These studies have found that bereaved family members often search for new hope, meaning, and purpose in life, both in qualitative [15][16][17] and quantitative studies. [18][19][20][21] Only a few studies examined benefit finding in bereavement focused on cancer caregivers and prospectively investigated the effects of initial caregiving experiences on benefit finding in bereavement, however.…”

Impact of death and dying on the personal lives and practices of palliative and hospice care professionals

“…[1][2][3][4][5] A small number of studies discussed the residual impact of end-of-life care within a localized group of health care providers; however, there is limited cross-sectional research explicitly investigating the long-term effect of death and dying on the personal and professional lives of individuals who are exposed to death and dying on a frequent basis. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] To address these gaps in the literature, this study explored the impact of death and dying on the lives of key leaders and frontline professionals in palliative and hospice care -individuals who arguably provide society and health care practitioners with the most authoritative discourse on end of life and its effect on life in general.…”