A Phenomenological Study on Illness Experience of Patients with Pressure Ulcer

Misoo Yoo; Myungsun Yi

doi:10.7469/kjan.2015.27.5.515

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Yoo and Yi: A Phenomenological Study on Illness Experience of Patients with Pressure Ulcer

Original Article

Korean J Adult Nurs 2015;27(5):515-526.

Published online: October 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7469/kjan.2015.27.5.515

A Phenomenological Study on Illness Experience of Patients with Pressure Ulcer

Misoo Yoo^1,, Myungsun Yi²

^¹Department of Nursing, Yeoju Institute of Technology, Yeoju

^²College of Nursing, Research Institute of Nursing Science, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

Corresponding author: Yoo, Misoo Department of Nursing, Yeoju Institute of Technology, 338 Sejong-ro, Yeoju 469-705, Korea. Tel: +82-31-880-5325, Fax: +82-31-880-7041, E-mail: sacom8@hanmail.net

Received 8 August 20158 September 2015 Accepted 9 September 2015

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to describe the illness experience of patients with pressure ulcer.

Methods

A phenomenological methodology was used for the study. The data were collected by individual in-depth interview with seven participants with pressure ulcer during 2013~2014. All interviews were audio-taped and verbatim transcripts were made for the analysis. The data were analyzed using Colaizzi's phenomenological method.

Results

All participants had underlying disease, such as spinal paralysis and diabetes. Average period of having pressure ulcer was 18 months, ranged from 3 to 36 months. A total of seven theme clusters were derived from the analysis; unexpected wound, inherent vulnerability to infection, reversal of the treatment policy, unpleasant and strange feeling of wound, sweeping fear and helplessness, socioeconomic burden, and healing through specific actions and reflection. The participants faced various contradictory and paradoxical situations in managing their pressure ulcers as well as underlying diseases in their everyday life. However, they slowly overcome these situations by strictly practicing concrete action-oriented strategies that they have learned through suffering and appreciating miraculous wound healing.

Conclusion

The results of this study can help developing a patient-specific intervention program with sufficient emotional support by providing insights of the paradoxical illness experience of patients with pressure ulcer.

Keywords: Pressure ulcer, Qualitative research, Illness experience

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Table 1.

Demographic and Pressure Ulcer Characteristics of the Participants

No.	Sex	Age (year)	Marital status	Economic status	Education	Diagnosis	Location of Pressure ulcer	Onset of pressure ulcer (date)
1	F	52	Divorced	Middle	High school	Breast cancer with	Sacrum	2012.6
						brain metastasis
2	F	40	Single	Middle	High school	Spinal cord Injury	Sacrum	1993.8
3	F	46	Single	Low	High school	Spinal cord Injury	Sacrum & both	2008.5
							trochanter
4	M	50	Single	Middle	High school	Syringomyelia	Sacrum, both	1998.11
							trochanter & heel
5	M	68	Bereaved	Middle	Middle school	Cerebral infarction	Sacrum	1997.7
6	M	42	Single	Middle	High school	Congestive heart	Sacrum & both	2013.5
						failure	trochanter
7	M	49	Single	Middle	High school	Diabetes Mellitus	Sacrum	2010.10

Table 2.

Themes of the Lived Experience of Patients with Pressure Ulcer

Theme cluster	Theme
Unexpected wound	․ Ignorance and prejudice about pressure ulcer
Unexpected wound	․ Concealment and duplicity of pressure ulcer
Inherent vulnerability to infection	․ Proximity of excretory organ
	․ Contradiction of position change
	․ Nonexistence of continuous caring
Reversal of the treatment policy	․ Underlying disease overwhelmed by pressure ulcer
Reversal of the treatment policy	․ Dual suffering due to underlying disease and pressure ulcer
Unpleasant and strange feeling of wound	․ Feeling of wound always flown wet
Unpleasant and strange feeling of wound	․ Weird smell and shredded wound
Sweeping fear and helplessness	․ Fear of sepsis
Sweeping fear and helplessness	․ Anger and helplessness
Socio-economic burden	․ Social isolation and sense of alineation
Socio-economic burden	․ treatment expenditure leaking slowly
Healing through specific actions and reflection	․ Information seeking through recognition about seriousness of would and
	․ Strict implementation of treatment regimen
	․ Appreciation of the mystery of wound healing

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