RESEARCH ARTICLE
The Use of Descriptive Words and Metaphor in Patient and Carer Experience of Palliative Day Care: Secondary Analysis of a Qualitative Study
J. Richardson*, 1, J. Grose2
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2009Volume: 3
First Page: 18
Last Page: 24
Publisher ID: TONURSJ-3-18
DOI: 10.2174/1874434600903010018
PMID: 19587796
PMCID: PMC2705067
Article History:
Received Date: 20/4/2009Revision Received Date: 1/5/2009
Acceptance Date: 5/5/2009
Electronic publication date: 05/6/2009
Collection year: 2009
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed 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 work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background:
An independent evaluation of changes to the delivery of Palliative Day Services was carried out during 2006-2007 using interviews with service users. The analysis found that the words and metaphors employed by users of services emphasized their emotional response to the changes, and helped to explain their depth of feeling about their experiences, warranting further investigation.
Aim:
To conduct a secondary analysis on interview data collected for the Day Services Evaluation Study in order to understand how patients and their carers use descriptive words and metaphor when talking about their experiences of palliative day services.
Methods:
Interview transcripts from 40 patients and 8 carers were subjected to secondary thematic analysis. These were read individually and coded where metaphor or descriptive words had been used to emphasize the effect of the illness and the experiences of the Day Services.
Findings:
Examples of the metaphorical expressions and words used described the service as a ‘secure rock in a changing world’; transition was felt as ‘sadness’, a ‘betrayal’, with feelings that the changes were ‘bitter and twisted;’ and left ‘a black hole’. Post transition the mood had changed to acceptance ‘When life throws lemons at you, you make lemonade’.
Conclusions:
The metaphors and descriptive words used act as what we describe as ‘emotional intensifiers’ which provide a measure of the impact of the effect of illness, the effect of the day services on users and carers and the intensity of feeling during the time of transition.
