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Understanding the experience of chronic illness in the age of globalization

Chronic disease is the largest cause of death in the world. Yet little is known about how globalization forces affect the body and the experience of someone who is chronically ill. The need for specialized knowledge of subjective data is significant as it will assist us to improve our understanding and develop stronger nursing practices for people who are chronically ill. The purpose of this research is to understand the effect that globalization forces have on the personal experience of people living with chronic illnesses. People living with chronic illness from Canada and Colombia are participants in the study. The following research questions guided the study “What is it like to live with a chronic illness in the context of contemporary globalization forces? How do these political, economical and social forces affect the body of the chronically ill? Are experienced difficulties similar or different in a middle-income country as compared to a high-income country? The methodology for the study follows an interpretive inquiry approach using a critical hermeneutic phenomenological method. Hermeneutic phenomenology explores the various dimensions of human experience in human situations such as embodiment, spatiality, relationality and temporality. Critical pedagogy as a theoretical perspective invoking the work of Paulo Freire and Enrique Dussel is used to examine emerging findings in the context of globalization and resulting global inequities. This dissertation presents the experience of people who are chronically ill including access to health care, respect, compassion, social, political and legal exclusion, and calls for understanding and action on the part of health care professionals, policy makers and society. The findings urge us to move from merely acknowledging the difficulties people living with chronic illness endure in an age of globalization to action to bring about health care, social, and political reform through a process of conscientization and mutual transformation.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:AEU.10048/1925
Date06 1900
CreatorsCamargo Plazas, Maria del Pilar
ContributorsCameron, Brenda (Faculty of Nursing), Smith, David (Faculty of Education), Santos Salas, Anna (Faculty of Nursing), Day, Rene (Faculty of Nursing), Hall, Joanne (External Examiner)
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Format1660832 bytes, application/pdf

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