Journal of Palliative Care & Medicine
Open Access

Abstract

Objective: To analyse the coping strategies that is used to handle aging and illness. Method: Exploratory and qualitative research, based on the phenomenology theoretical framework. We interviewed 11 older palliative care patients with advanced cancer in a hospital in Brazil (semi-structured interviews). Afterwards, those interviews were analysed through Alceste software. Results: The 11 participants had an average age of 68, 9 years and an average education of 4, 54 years. From the content analysis, we identified two axes. The first one covers the class resilient coping and the formation of personality, which refers to a resilient personality structure that has been forged throughout the life cycle. In this axis, we identified that the participants had many adverse situations throughout their lives scarce socioeconomic conditions, loss of their parents, and loss of their childhood. To manage these difficulties, we believe that the participants used coping strategies, which forged a resilient personality. The second axis is composed by the class illness and stressors. There we identified the situations that the participants experienced throughout their illness. The main stressors we highlight were: Bad news, and the difficulty in accessing treatment. In the management of the stressors arising from the illness process, the participants reported using resilient coping strategies as spiritual support and accommodation. Conclusion: The difficult events throughout the participants� life allowed the development of capacity to deal with adverse situations, to overcome pressures and obstacles, and to become able to react positively to them. Those are characteristics of a resilient personality. Faced with aging and illness, the participants used coping strategies capable of managing the stressors in a positive way.

Biography

Mariana Ribeiro is a Nurse. She is specialized in aging from the Federal University of São Paulo and a Master’s candidate at the Postgraduate Nursing Program of the University of Brasilia, Brazil.

Email: smarianaribeiro@gmail.com