title: Disrupted lives: investigating coping strategies for non-healing leg ulcers.
abstract: The aim of this study was to explore the lived experience of people who have non-healing venous ulcers using hermeneutic phenomenology. Unstructured interviews were carried out with five people who also completed a diary. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was utilized to identify themes and patterns. The core themes identified through analysis were biographical disruption, ways of coping, social implications and therapeutic relationships. The emergent themes reveal the impact of chronicity in participants' experience of chronic leg ulcers, their various emotional and problem-focused coping strategies and the positive role the district nurse plays in their lives. This study places leg ulceration within the body of literature on chronicity, linking nursing theory with the insights offered from health psychology.
authors.affiliation: East London Wound Healing Centre, Tower Hamlets Primary Care Trust, London, UK.
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hopkins
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000368:Aged; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001828:Body Image; D017281:Cost of Illness; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007871:Leg Ulcer / Q000451:nursing / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*; D008019:Life Style; D008132:Loneliness; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009812:Odorants; D011637:Public Health Nursing; D011788:Quality of Life; D012648:Self Care / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology; D012919:Social Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014945:Wound Healing