Pattern recognition as a caring partnership in families with cancer

The purpose of this study was to address the process of a caring partnershi p by elaborating pattern recognition as nursing intervention with families with cancer. It is based on Newman's theory of health as expanding consciou sness within the unitary-transformative paradigm and is an extension of a p revious study of Japanese women with ovarian cancer. A hermeneutic, dialect ic method was used to engage 10 Japanese families in which the wife-mothers were hospitalized because of cancer diagnosis. The family included at leas t the woman with cancer and her primary caregiver. Each of four nurse-resea rchers entered into partnership with a different family and conducted three interviews with each family. The participants were asked to describe the m eaningful persons and events in their family history. The family's story wa s transmuted into a diagram of sequential patterns of interactional configu rations and shared with the family at the second meeting. Evidence of patte rn recognition and insight into the meaning of the family pattern were iden tified further in the remaining meetings. The data revealed five dimensions of a transformative process. Most families found meaning in their patterns and made a shift from separated individuals within the family to trustful caring relationships. One-third of them went through this process within tw o interviews. The families showed increasing openness, connectedness and tr ustfulness in caring relationships. In partnership with the family, each nu rse-researcher grasped the pattern of the family as a whole and experienced the meaning of caring. Pattern recognition as nursing intervention was a m eaning-making transforming process in the family-nurse partnership.