MEANING OF ILLNESS FOR WOMEN WITH BREAST-CANCER

The meaning that women with breast cancer ascribe to their disease may well have an impact on the effectiveness of coping strategies used to come to terms with breast cancer, Health care professionals need to k now what meanings women with breast cancer are ascribing to their dise ase if they are to identify maladaptive coping strategies and ensure t hat women receive the support that they need in order to promote physi cal and psychological recovery, This study involved assessing meaning of illness for a group of women with breast cancer at two points in ti me, the time of diagnosis and a mean of 21 months from diagnosis, The eight meanings of illness devised toy Lipowski were depicted by tile f ollowing words: challenge, enemy, punishment, loss, strategy, relief, weakness and value, The most popular choice of meaning for the women w as challenge, although some women's choices indicated that maladaptive coping strategies were being used, The implications of the study for nurses and other health care professionals are discussed.