People living with renal failure experience enormous challenges, yet very little is known
about life with this disease. The goal of this research was to gain an integrated understanding of
the lives of people with renal failure. An understanding of life with renal failure that includes
cultural, institutional and historical contexts may provide health care practitioners with the kind
of information and insights necessary to improve medical practice. Thus far, medical practice
has been based on a biomedical model of care that focuses almost exclusively on the physical
aspects of illness. From this perspective, people with kidney disease are seen as autonomous and
rational individuals. In this research, a sociocultural multiple case study approach was utilized
in order to gain a situated understanding of life for four people with renal disease.
This research revealed that life with renal failure is work. While it is the people living
with renal failure who do the bulk of the work, friends and family also work to "live" with renal
disease. Participants and their significant others learn about and become experts on life with
this disease. A gap was found between practitioners' understanding of disease and participants'
lived experience — resulting in many negative repercussions. Medical-based knowledge is
lacking because it does not consider the three relevant sources of knowledge: practitioners,
participants and participants' significant others. This research argues for a bridge between the
home world and the hospital world, so that a broader community of practice is created. An
account of the lived experience of people with renal failure that includes these factors can
inform "best practice" because it provides a richer and more authentic picture of life with this
illness. It is from this perspective that health care practitioners can begin to broaden their
understanding of renal failure as it is "lived", and, so informed, can better provide the kinds of
education and support that will enhance the lives of people with this illness.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/9967 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Faber, Shawna |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
Page generated in 0.0018 seconds