Analysis of Chronic Illness Experiences in Healthcare Reflection

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of reflections on chronic illness, drawing from three key articles focusing on the experiences of caregivers, healthcare professionals, and patients. The first article by Clark (2017) examines the needs of dying cancer patients and their families, highlighting the challenges faced by nurses and the importance of patient autonomy in end-of-life care. The second article, by Hudson (2017), explores the experiences of male spouse caregivers of women with breast cancer, focusing on the impact on their self-identity and the emotional toll of caregiving. The third article by Zheng et al. (2014) investigates Chinese oncology nurses' experiences caring for dying patients, emphasizing the nurses' personal and professional growth and the emotional impact of end-of-life care. The report synthesizes these perspectives to provide insights into the multifaceted challenges and emotional complexities of chronic illness and end-of-life care, emphasizing the importance of empathy, support, and understanding for both patients and caregivers.

RUNNING HEAD: CHRONIC ILLNESS
CHRONIC ILLNESS
Name of Student
Name of University
Author note

1CHRONIC ILLNESS
Reflection on experiences with living and dying with cancer
Clark (2017) aimed to study ‘Care at the Very End-of-Life: Dying Cancer Patients
and Their Chosen Family’s Needs’. The healthcare practitioners caring for the terminally ill
cancer patients in their wards has found it increasingly difficult to care for the patients as the
day passes by. The researcher used a non-systematic method to review the qualitative studies
done on experiences of nurses caring for cancer patients and highlighted their perspectives.
While reflecting on the levels of care provided – the researcher focusses on the lives of
patient transcending the lives of the caregivers such as nurses who are in constant touch with
the patients. The behavioral symptoms aggravated in some nurse while they cared for the
dying and the behavioral planes transcended in others who considered the philosophical
learning that can only be derived from understanding what a person feel at the assured end
stages of life. Furthermore, the carers as in the family persons and friends, relatives who are
in constant fear of losing their loved one at point of time, makes them tentative and
behaviorally and emotionally unstable. The research elucidates the fact how persons who are
sure of the imminent death that awaits them close, has articulated their last wishes regarding
where they wanted to die. The place of death was a revealing notion, presented by the
researcher. Self-esteem, respect for privacy and route to death are the other psychosocial
aspects reflected on, by the researcher who felt that the dying patients wish generally for a
death within premises of his society.
Emilie Hudson (2017) studies caregiver’s experience in the article ‘All I can do is
help’. The caregiver’s experience caring for his wife with breast cancer is highlighted. The
male spouse caring for their wives spoke about their self-identity and the balance that existed
between this identity and the social identity. While the wives suffered from lack of self-
esteem, the husbands felt the needs of being more loving, more compassionate while caring
for their sick wives. Five open ended questions were used to understand the perspectives of

2CHRONIC ILLNESS
the caregivers (the husbands) about their experiences of treating and caring for their breast
cancer affected wives. The caregivers reflected on the need of empathy and empathic
transfers with their wives, while facilitating their wife’s self-esteem and social identity. While
the husbands who are being long married, felt sadder and attached to their wives, the newly
married couples suffered from emotional disturbances but in any case, the husbands as
caregivers highlighted on the perspectives or aspects of their masculine psychology to take
control of the frail situation that often affects their household. The caregivers also reflected
on the relationships with their children while they cared for their breast cancer affected
wives.
Zheng et al. (2014) aimed to understand the Chinese oncology nurses’ experience on
caring for dying patients who are on their final days. The study puts to perspective – the
interchanging aspects of death and life. This study reflects on the nurse’s perspective. The
study emphasizes ‘personal philosophy’ on the death and life attitudes, developed by the
nurses when they experienced a personal, reflective psycho-spiritual growth while caring for
cancer patients. The nurses, as highlighted in this reflection, were reported to go through
various stages of humanistic and spiritual changes or transformations rather that impacted
their reward and positive reinforcement behavior, greatly. The value for the things and beings
we have already got and be feel loved and worth around them was another aspect which was
emphasized in the study. Behavioral, personality and emotional transformations in the
attending nurses who experienced the terminal lives and death of cancer patients, too closely
– were elucidated throughout the course of the scientific research. The nurses reflected on a
personal and professional growth from the transformative end of life care of cancer affected
patients. As the study described, the senior nurses who were definitely much more
experiences and psychologically habituated in caring for the end of life and cancer patients
were reported to be less emotionally tangled with the end of life and dying experiences as

3CHRONIC ILLNESS
compared to the new graduate registered nurses who were affected at the most and even to a
point, where the sheer experience of seeing someone die, rendered them psychologically
traumatized.

4CHRONIC ILLNESS
References
Clark, K. (2017). Care at the very end-of-life: dying cancer patients and their chosen family’s
needs. Cancers, 9(2), 11.
Hudson, E. (2017). ‘All I can do is help’: Transition experiences of male spouse caregivers of
women with breast cancer. Canadian Oncology Nursing Journal, 27(2), 202.
Zheng, R. S., Guo, Q. H., Dong, F. Q., & Owens, R. G. (2015). Chinese oncology nurses’
experience on caring for dying patients who are on their final days: A qualitative
study. International journal of nursing studies, 52(1), 288-296.