Inger Sandén

Routinization and Sensitivity: Interaction in Oncological Follow-Up Consultations

The empirical data of this study were gathered in the form of audio-taped recordings of dialogues between 21 patients, who had had operations for testicular cancer and three physicians during follow-up consultations. The aim is to inquire into how routine practices affect the goals of checking up the medical conditions and providing patients with reassurance, and how practices affect the treatment of sensitive topics and the patients’ possibilities of bringing up their own problems are affected. The results show that the routines built up by the medical care programme are used as recurrent opportunities for the parties to confirm that the situation is under control and as resources when they talk about the sensitive topics of sexuality and fertility. How the routinization affected the patients’ possibilities of bringing up their own problems cannot be fully determined. Of the 50 initiatives by patients to present their problems, only nine did so solely on their own initiative.

En grupp sjuksköterskors beskrivning av goda vårdsituationer i palliativ vård

Palliative care makes heavy demands on the home-care nurse. When caring for the patient the nurse might come very close to both patient and his or her family. The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of a good palliative care situation in home-care nursing, according to the home-care nurse. Information was gathered by conducting narrative interviews, using one open-ended question. Five nurses, working in municipal health and medical services in Sweden, were interviewed. They were asked to describe one good palliative care situation in home-care nursing. The narratives were analyzed through van Manens method. Four themes emerged from the narratives: confidence, presence, togetherness and a sensitive ear. These themes were construed as van Manens existentials: spatiality, corporeality, temporality and relationality/communality. The results of this study contribute to the understanding of the life-world of the home-care nurses, while giving palliative care.

How Everyday Life Is Affected: An Interview Study of Relatives of Men Suffering from Testicular Cancer

Abstract The aim of this study was to describe, by means of explorative interviews, the experiences of relatives of male family members suffering from testicular cancer. The central questions concerned how the disease and its treatment affected the life of the family, how its daily routines were affected, the form of relationships and closeness during the period of the disease, and how the future was given shape. The results revealed four main themes presented by the relatives during the interviews: the disease and its course, normalization, the long-term consequences of the disease, and the social network. The results showed that relatives of men suffering from cancer live in a vulnerable situation characterized by social isolation.

The Swenoteca Medical Care Program as a Resource for Patients and Physicians

The overall aim is to investigate, from a communicative and interactive perspective, how physicians use the medical care program in dialogues with patients, and how patients use the program when they talk about their treatment and the disease, testicular cancer. Data consist of 23 patient-physician consultations and 23 interviews. The analysis was performed in stages. The results show that the physicians use the medical care program as an instrument in the dialogues and a structure for information when a patient is about to embark on a round of continued treatment after his operation. When the physician presents the course of treatment to the patient, he gives SWENOTECA as the reason for the choice. During the follow-up consultations, SWENOTECA is used as a basic framework for what should be checked from a medical point of view and as a structure to ensure that the checkups are performed. The medical care program seems to exert a strong influence on the mens accounts during the interviews in terms of the medical terminology they use and as a structure for the course of the disease and for giving them a perspective of the future as well as hope.