Care of Patients Recovering from Cardiac SurgeryPatients' discharge experiences: Returning home after open-heart surgery
Section snippets
Methods
In this study, we used narrative inquiry as the methodology. Narrative inquiry involves a focus on stories.20, 21 We drew on the concept of “narrative emplotment.”22, 23, 24 This concept directs attention to active processes of constructing a plot line. It involves depicting interrelationships among characters, events, interactions, and outcomes.22, 23, 24 Focus on emplotment was key to this study, because it drew attention to how meaning was constructed in storytelling and to an analysis of
Results
Discharge and going home were noteworthy components of participants' stories. Vulnerability at discharge and upon returning home were enfolded into 4 main plot developments that were contingent on personal context and were reflected in varying degrees and ways. These developments frame the Results: (1), “Thrown to the wolves,” (2), “Double-edged sword,” (3), “I don't know what is normal now,” and (4) “Walk that fine line.” Variations of these plot developments are present in the literature
Discussion
In this narrative inquiry, we explored patients' experiences of technology during heart surgery and recovery. By using a broad and inclusive definition of technology, including the associated logics and practices of care, we could more thoroughly elicit and analyze narrative accounts. This theoretical construction offered an opening into storytelling that unfolded according to participants' particular experiences, as opposed to limiting their stories. As a result, the use of this theoretical
Conclusions
Over a decade ago, Radley61 reported that heart surgery becomes part of patients' identity, i.e., “a mark on their biography” (p. 135). Uniquely, our study illuminated ways in which individuals were marked by technology as they were discharged home. Close involvement with technology in the hospital and the technologically driven scripts prompted a recasting of identity. Individuals characterized themselves as vulnerable, and believed that they required close surveillance. Understanding this
Acknowledgments
This article was based on J.L.’s doctoral research. She acknowledges, and is thankful for, the fellowships that supported her doctoral education: a Heart and Stroke of Canada Nursing Research Fellowship, a stipend from the Strategic Training Program for Cardiovascular Nurse Scientists (a partnership between the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health and the Heart and Stroke Foundation), a Senator Norman M. Paterson Fellowship from the Canadian
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