TY - JOUR

T1 - Diversity in cancer care

T2 - exploring social categories in encounters between healthcare professionals and breast cancer patients

AU - Nyholm, Nanna

AU - Halvorsen, Ida

AU - Rasmussen, Anna Mygind

AU - Christensen, Ulla

AU - Kristiansen, Maria

PY - 2018/9/1

Y1 - 2018/9/1

N2 - Background: The burden of breast cancer is a key challenge for women's health globally. Rehabilitation needs and strategies for living with long-term consequences of breast cancer and its treatment cannot be isolated from the social contexts of patients, including relationships with relatives and healthcare professionals. Aim: This study explores how healthcare professionals’ categorisations engage with breast cancer patients’ social identities in encounters about rehabilitation before hospital discharge. Method: We conducted a multiperspective case-based qualitative study at a Danish department of breast surgery, including participant observations and interviews with twelve patients and eight nurses. Data were analysed thematically using theories of categorisation and clinical encounters. Ethical considerations: The Danish Data Protection Agency approved the study (journal number 2012-41-0701). Results: Interactions in clinical encounters are shaped by categorisations of patients’ social identities in terms of social resources and ethnicity, and by the resource-constrained organisational context, with impact on the assessments of the patient's rehabilitation needs. Conclusions: There is a need for a greater focus on improving encounters between breast cancer patients and healthcare professionals to ensure that rehabilitation needs are accommodated for among diverse patient groups.

AB - Background: The burden of breast cancer is a key challenge for women's health globally. Rehabilitation needs and strategies for living with long-term consequences of breast cancer and its treatment cannot be isolated from the social contexts of patients, including relationships with relatives and healthcare professionals. Aim: This study explores how healthcare professionals’ categorisations engage with breast cancer patients’ social identities in encounters about rehabilitation before hospital discharge. Method: We conducted a multiperspective case-based qualitative study at a Danish department of breast surgery, including participant observations and interviews with twelve patients and eight nurses. Data were analysed thematically using theories of categorisation and clinical encounters. Ethical considerations: The Danish Data Protection Agency approved the study (journal number 2012-41-0701). Results: Interactions in clinical encounters are shaped by categorisations of patients’ social identities in terms of social resources and ethnicity, and by the resource-constrained organisational context, with impact on the assessments of the patient's rehabilitation needs. Conclusions: There is a need for a greater focus on improving encounters between breast cancer patients and healthcare professionals to ensure that rehabilitation needs are accommodated for among diverse patient groups.

KW - cancer

KW - care giving

KW - case study research

KW - ethnicity

KW - inequalities in health

KW - nurse–patient interaction

KW - qualitative approaches

KW - rehabilitation

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85053853020&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/scs.12556

DO - 10.1111/scs.12556

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 29341201

VL - 32

SP - 1108

EP - 1117

JO - Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences

JF - Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences

SN - 0283-9318

IS - 3

ER -