title: Discursive meaning of hope for older persons with advanced cancer and their caregivers.
abstract: This study used van Dijk's critical-discourse approach to explore the current societal discourse on hope and to explore the hope of older terminally ill cancer patients, their significant others and primary nurse. Forty-three newspaper articles dealing with hope and cancer were collected and analyzed to explore how hope is socially constructed by print media. Individual face-to-face, qualitative, open-ended interviews were conducted with three triads, each consisting of an older palliative cancer patient, a significant other, and a primary nurse. The predominant discourse of hope and cancer in the newspaper articles was considered ageist, conveying the message that only one legitimate hope existed for persons with cancer: hope for a cure. The study findings suggested that this message caused confusion and distress for the patients, significant others, and their primary nurses because their own discourses of hope were focused on comfort, peace, and maintaining relationships at the end of life.
authors: Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB. Wendy.duggleby@ualberta.ca
authors: Wendy
authors: W
authors: Duggleby
authors: Lorraine
authors: L
authors: Holtslander
authors: Megan
authors: M
authors: Steeves
authors: Shanda
authors: S
authors: Duggleby-Wenzel
authors: Shannon
authors: S
authors: Cunningham
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000339:Affect; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001293:Attitude to Death; D002170:Canada; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D009524:Newspapers as Topic; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000523:psychology*; D011287:Prejudice; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000523:psychology*