Return to search

Se – än lever jag! : Livsåskådning och lärande i livets slutskede / Look – I’m still alive! : View of life and learning in the end of life

The purpose of the study has been, by adopting a view of life and a learning perspective, to reach an understanding of the way in which cancer patients in a palliative care context understand and cope with their existential life situation. I asked the following questions: 1) How does their personal view of life influence the patients’ understanding and coping with the illness and existential life situation? 2) What existential questions are central to the patients? 3) What is personal learning all about? 4) What prerequisites are important for fostering the patients’ personal learning? Interviews focusing on narratives were conducted with ten patients who have an incurable cancer disease. The interviews were taped and transcribed into texts. A hermeneutic method was applied to understand the content and import of the patients’ narratives. The results show that the patients achieve closure, which involves them making reassessments, adapting their life to the illness, being reconciled with themselves and with their relation to their surroundings. It is also about them wishing to bequeath a legacy and hand down desirable qualities, values and merits for future generations. Taking this view of life as their basis, the patients interpret their illness, existential questions and life situation, and structure their existence so as to make it comprehensible and meaningful. Life narratives can serve as a tool in enabling caregivers to identify patients’ existential questions, view of life, learning requirements and the way they make sense of things (”meaning-making”). By means of view of life support counselling caregivers can identify the patients’ personal ideas, values and support their needs. The patients can reach an awareness of their personal view of life. Reappraising and developing this can be viewed as a form of perspective shift or learning.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-7119
Date January 2007
CreatorsKrook, Caroline
PublisherStockholms universitet, Institutionen för samhälle, kultur och lärande (SKL), Stockholm
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageSwedish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeDoctoral thesis, monograph, info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
RelationStudies in educational sciences, 1400-478X ; 103

Page generated in 0.002 seconds