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Patients’ experiences of everyday life after lung transplantation
Author(s) -
Thomsen Doris,
Jensen Birte Østergaard
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of clinical nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.94
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1365-2702
pISSN - 0962-1067
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2702.2009.02828.x
Subject(s) - lung transplantation , gratitude , everyday life , transplantation , medicine , copd , qualitative research , exploratory research , rehabilitation , activities of daily living , psychology , physical therapy , psychiatry , surgery , psychotherapist , social science , sociology , political science , anthropology , law
Aim. To investigate the experiences of everyday life after lung transplantation of patients with previous chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Background. Compared with patients being transplanted due to other indications, those with COPD prior to lung transplantation report more problems in the form of shortness of breath, fatigue, sexual problems, insomnia and increased appetite. In addition, they are often faced with problems returning to normal working life. How these problems influence the patient’s everyday life is unknown. Design. An exploratory qualitative study. Methods. Ten COPD patients (five females and five males) aged 51–69 and more than six months post transplantation, were interviewed using of a semi‐structured interview guide. All interviews were taperecorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using qualitative content analysis. Findings. The analysis revealed four themes of experience: a second chance; an ordinary life without chronic rejection; even minor daily activities take time with chronic rejection; and need for support and knowledge that were considered important by the participants for their situation and daily life. Conclusions. This is the first study describing the experiences of everyday life after lung transplantation of patients with COPD prior to surgery. The findings highlight the importance of addressing these patients’ experiences of gratitude, positive life orientation and informational needs in relation to everyday life. Relevance to clinical practice. Health professionals should be aware of the kind of problems both women and men may experience a long time after the lung transplantation. They constitute a basic knowledge of a patient’s everyday life that is important when planning individual counselling and rehabilitation.