LIVING WITH BREAST-CANCER - CAREGIVERS PERCEPTIONS IN A SURGICAL WARD

Caring for women with breast cancer has potential for increasing care giver distress and anxiety. Knowledge of the threats implicit in the d isease and treatment as well as overidentification with the patient fo rm the basis for this outcome. In order to describe perceptions of bre ast cancer as an illness, semistructured interviews were carried out w ith 37 care givers at a surgical department. The interviews were tape- recorded and transcribed verbatim. An analysis was then carried out of the stories told by the care givers about breast cancer as an illness . The results indicated that breast cancer as an illness gave rise to predominantly negative and dark associations among the care givers. Th eir experiences of caring for women in critical stages of the illness over many years appear to have had a negative influence on them. Death itself; and even more so the process leading to the end, were very ta ngible in their stories. The article concludes that care givers on a s urgical ward have a fragmented picture of the patients and need to be given opportunities to follow the total care process. Those care giver s who were able to follow the women's stages of illness throughout mor e often had a positive picture.