Saudi adults in vaso-occlusive crisis accessing healthcare for pain management: A phenomenological inquiry
View File(s)
Background: Vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs) require frequent utilization of healthcare services by adults with sickle cell disease (SCD). This increases the likelihood of poor care and healthcare disparities. The experiences of SCD patients attempting to access pain management have rarely been examined. An evaluation of these experiences may ease the lifelong suffering of Saudi Arabians affected by SCD.
Purpose: This study explored the lived experience of Saudi Arabian adults when accessing the healthcare system for pain management in VOC.
Philosophical Underpinnings: A qualitative transcendental phenomenological approach guided by the interpretivist–constructivist paradigm to inductively understand the lived experiences of adults during VOC.
Methods: Purposeful and snowball sampling techniques were used to recruit 12 participants. The data analysis was guided by Moustakas’s transcendental phenomenology.
Results: Four major themes emerged: enduring, suffering while crying out for understanding, the paradox of accessing the healthcare system, and longing beyond suffering. The essence of the experience was extracted from a synthesis of textural and structural descriptions: longing for their suffering to be recognized while asking for compassionate and informed care. The praxis of suffering theory provided further insights to study’s findings.
Conclusions: This study revealed the profound suffering of patients with SCD during VOCs. They long for their pain to be understood and for better treatment when accessing healthcare. Compassionate, informed care, with positive interventions, would help patients to cope with their pain and to move on, beyond their suffering toward a more hopeful future. The results suggested that offering compassionate care may contribute to pain relief, warranting further research.
This dissertation has also been disseminated through the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Dissertation/thesis number: 30521818; ProQuest document ID: 10315. The author still retains copyright.
This item has not gone through this repository's peer-review process, but has been accepted by the indicated university or college in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the specified degree.
| Type | Dissertation |
| Acquisition | Proxy-submission |
| Review Type | None: Degree-based Submission |
| Format | Text-based Document |
| Evidence Level | Phenomenology |
| Research Approach | Qualitative Research |
| Keywords | Sickle Cell Disease; Vaso-Occlusive Crises; Accessing Healthcare; Pain Management; Adults Population |
| Grantor | Barry University |
| Advisor | Chin, Claudette |
| Level | PhD |
| Year | 2023 |
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.
All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.
All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subjects.
-
Healthcare injustice experiences or negative pain coping strategies in patients with sickle cell disease: Which comes first?
(2016-03-21)Session presented on Monday, November 9, 2015: Purpose/Theoretical Rationale: Healthcare injustice is a psychological stressor that has been associated with adverse psychological (stress) and physiological (pain) consequences ... -
Treating depression and sleep impairment to improve pain levels and quality of life for patients with sickle cell disease: A quality improvement project
(2017-05-19)Background: Vaso-occlusive crisis (VOC) pain is both an acute and chronic factor for patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). Acute, recurrent, and unrelenting pain is often joined by other affective disorders that ... -
Stigma in sickle cell disease scale development: A pilot study in adults and family/caregivers in the U.S. and Nigeria
(2013-10-22)Session presented on: Thursday, July 25, 2013: Purpose: Individuals with chronic genetic conditions experience personal and family stigma throughout their lives. Stigma associated with genetically inherited conditions is ... -
Preventive management of anemia among caregivers of sickle cell disease patients in a Nigerian hospital
Anemia in people suffering from Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is a major concern of all involved in their management. Understanding the anemia preventive practices among primary caregivers and significant others involved in ... -
Misunderstanding of pain in sickle cell disease by outpatient infusion nurses
The paradigm for understanding pain in patients with sickle Cell disease (SCD) has changed. It is now understood that these patients experience acute and often chronic pain. We observed the phenomena of chronic pain and ...
