Making sense of turmoil: how women reconcile their emotional response to discovery of a potential breast cancer symptom
| dc.contributor.author | O'Mahony, Máirín | |
| dc.contributor.author | Hegarty, Josephine | |
| dc.contributor.author | Rooney, Vivien M. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2018-12-21T11:13:08Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2018-12-21T11:13:08Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2018-11 | |
| dc.date.updated | 2018-12-21T10:10:10Z | |
| dc.description.abstract | Background: Breast cancer continues to be a major public health problem for women. Early detection and treatment are key to improved outcomes. Whereas most women seek help promptly, some postpone seeking help for self-discovered breast symptoms. Investigation of women’s help-seeking behavior and the associated influencing factors on self-discovery of a breast symptom were sought. Objectives: The aim of this article is to report the qualitative data from women who had self-discovered a breast symptom. Methods: Women (n = 167) with a self-discovered breast symptom (who were part of a large quantitative correlational study) commented in an open-ended question on their overall experience. Comments were analyzed using Discourse Analysis. Results: Four linked discourses were identified: (1) “being and remaining normal,” (2) “emotion,” (3) “becoming and being abnormal,” and (4) “rationality.” A sidelined discourse of emotion is drawn on to defer taking action based on rational knowledge. Conclusion: The tension between discourses “emotion” and “rationality” further informs our understanding of women’s help-seeking behavior following self-discovered symptoms. Findings provide a deeper understanding of the emotional aspects of women’s experience around symptom discovery. Implications: for Practice Findings will be of benefit to all healthcare professionals involved in assessment and screening of breast changes suggestive of breast cancer. They provide a novel insight into the meaning of breast cancer, its diagnosis and treatment, and how this impacts women’s emotions as they await consultation in a breast clinic. | en |
| dc.description.status | Peer reviewed | en |
| dc.description.version | Accepted Version | en |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | en |
| dc.identifier.citation | O'Mahony, M., Hegarty, J. and Rooney, V. M. (2018) 'Making sense of turmoil: how women reconcile their emotional response to discovery of a potential breast cancer symptom', Cancer Nursing, 41(6), pp. 513-519. doi:10.1097/NCC.0000000000000548 | en |
| dc.identifier.doi | 10.1097/NCC.0000000000000548 | |
| dc.identifier.endpage | 519 | en |
| dc.identifier.issn | 0162-220X | |
| dc.identifier.issn | 1538-9804 | |
| dc.identifier.issued | 6 | en |
| dc.identifier.journaltitle | Cancer Nursing | en |
| dc.identifier.startpage | 513 | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10468/7251 | |
| dc.identifier.volume | 41 | en |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.publisher | Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. | en |
| dc.rights | © 2018, Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Cancer Nursing. To access the final edited and published work see https://dx.doi.org/10.1097/NCC.0000000000000548 | en |
| dc.subject | Help-seeking behavior | en |
| dc.subject | Patient delay | en |
| dc.subject | Self | en |
| dc.subject | Diagnosis | en |
| dc.subject | Knowledge | en |
| dc.subject | Awareness | en |
| dc.subject | Barriers | en |
| dc.subject | England | en |
| dc.subject | Sample | en |
| dc.subject | Breast cancer | en |
| dc.subject | Discourse analysis | en |
| dc.subject | Oncology | en |
| dc.subject | Qualitative | en |
| dc.subject | Self-discovered symptom | en |
| dc.title | Making sense of turmoil: how women reconcile their emotional response to discovery of a potential breast cancer symptom | en |
| dc.type | Article (peer-reviewed) | en |
