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.
Kahn
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DL
School of Nursing, University of Texas, Austin 78701, USA.
Steeves
R H
RH
D000328:Adult; D001293:Attitude to Death; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D015470:Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / Q000523:psychology; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D010146:Pain / Q000523:psychology*