title: Preserving self-concept in the burn survivors: a qualitative study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Burn injury is a devastating experience affecting all aspects of a person's essence, including his/her identity and perception. These patients require complex cognitive efforts to redefine their identity to deal with difficult condition after burn injury and preserve self-concept. The experience of life after burn injury is generally a solitary one, closely related to the patients' cultural and religious context. Therefore, this study was conducted aiming at investigating burn patients' experiences regarding how to preserve self-concept in life after burn injury in Iran.
  
  
  METHODS
  This qualitative study was carried out using qualitative content analysis and in-depth unstructured interviews with 17 surviving burn subjects.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During the qualitative content analysis process, the concept of "locating" as the essence of the participants' experience was extracted as follows: (A) self-exploration (exploring the changes in one's life), (B) others' exploration (exploring the changes in the life of family members and the relationship between self and others), (C) position evaluation (self-position analysis), and (D) self-concept preservation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present study has developed new understandings of mental experiences of burn patients' self-concept by describing the concept of "self-locating". It helps us in classifying and understanding the concepts described in comprehensive theories developed in this area. They do this by focusing on what burn patients experience for choosing self-preservation strategies and having a meaningful life. The finding can be used as a conceptual framework for palliative care program in Iran.
authors.affiliation: Nursing and Midwifery Faculty, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Vahid
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Zamanzadeh
authors.affiliation: Nursing and Midwifery Faculty, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Llila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Valizadeh
authors.affiliation: Nursing and Midwifery Faculty, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Mojgan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lotfi
authors.affiliation: Medical Faculty, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Feridoon
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Salehi
keywords: Burn survivors; Iran; Qualitative study; Self-concept