title: Enduring suffering: a grounded theory analysis of the pain experience of elderly hospice patients with cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To identify, describe, and generate a theoretical analysis of the pain experience of elderly hospice patients with cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  Qualitative, grounded theory.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants' homes in rural east Texas counties.
  
  
  METHODS
  11 participants older than 65 years who were receiving services from a for-profit hospice.
  
  
  METHODS
  Broad, unstructured, face-to-face audiotaped interviews transcribed verbatim and analyzed using constant-comparative method of analysis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants' descriptions of their pain experience.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Suffering is the basic social problem of pain. Participants deal with suffering through the basic social process of enduring. Enduring has two subprocesses: maintaining hope and adjusting. Trusting in a higher being and finding meaning are ways of maintaining hope. Dealing with uncertainty, accepting, and minimizing pain are ways of adjusting.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Findings provide the basis for assessment of and interventions to foster enduring. Faith, caring relationships, and strategies to decrease pain helped elderly hospice patients to endure.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Nurses need to recognize and value the hard work of enduring to deal with suffering. Enduring may be fostered by assisting elderly hospice patients with cancer to maintain hope and adjust.
authors.affiliation: Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, TX, USA. duggleby@lcc.net
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Duggleby
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D017051:Hospice Care; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D010146:Pain / Q000209:etiology / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012919:Social Behavior; D013781:Texas