Pain requiring treatment is experienced by many cancer patients at the end of life. When these patients stay at home, family caregivers are often directly implicated in pain management. There are few studies that examine the process that these family caregivers engage in when they take on the responsibility of pain management. This means we need information on whether or not these family caregivers are prepared for management to ensure proper support and optimal pain control. / The purpose of this qualitative study was to study the process used by family caregivers at home to manage the pain of palliative cancer patients using a grounded theory approach. A total of 24 family caregivers with differing relationships to the patient and differing lengths of caregiver experience participated. Family caregivers were recruited using purposeful then theoretical sampling. The data sources were taped, transcribed (semi-structured) interviews, field notes, and memos. Data analysis used Strauss & Corbin's (1998) suggestions for substantive coding: open, axial, and selective coding. / The results lead to the proposition of an explanatory theory titled "the puzzle of pain management," which include: 1) a frame of the process of "drawing on past experiences"; 2) puzzle pieces representing the process "strategizing a game plan" which include the sub-processes of "accepting responsibility," "seeking information," and "establishing a pain management relationship"; 3) puzzle pieces representing the process of "striving to respond to pain" which include the sub-processes of "determining the characteristics of pain," "implementing a strategy for pain relief," and "verifying if pain relief strategies were successful; and 4) "gauging the best fit," a decision-making process that joins the two pieces of the puzzle. / The realization that family caregivers assemble a puzzle of processes indicates that there are factors that nurses must be aware of before creating, teaching, and implementing interventions for pain management. Furthermore, the results provide information to create and subsequently administer interventions based on caregivers' existing knowledge, identified needs for information and support, and current pain management regimens. The puzzle of pain management must be validated by further studies using this theory, in part, to help create interventions that will allow us to know how useful the theory is in practice. / Keywords: family caregivers, carers, pain management, palliative care, cancer pain, home care, grounded theory
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.115702 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Mehta, Anita, 1973- |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| 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 |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (School of Nursing.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 003131210, proquestno: AAINR66569, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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