title: The meaning of illness to a long-term survivor.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To review the ways in which cancer survivors find meaning in their illness experiences.
  
  
  METHODS
  Research literature and professional and personal experiences.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Survivors confront a number of issues as they try to find a place for their cancer experience in their lives and adopt different approaches to cope with their survivorship.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Nurses can assist cancer survivors to find meaning in their illness experience by understanding the symptoms and issues associated with survival.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychiatry and Public Health Sciences, the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Vachon
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*