Experiences of females when brachytherapy treatment has been undertaken: existential understanding

Abstract

Experiences of females with uterine cancer have been analyzed prior to brachytherapy treatment. The qualitative research has been foregrounded on Martin Heidegger’s existential phenomenology which favors the understanding of instances experienced by the patients. Females who had already initiated some type of treatment for uterine cancer were investigated, although only those undertaken radiotherapy in a specific radiotherapy clinic in the northwestern section of the state of Paraná/Brazil, have been selected. They would later have to undergo brachytherapy treatment which occurred between April and May 2006. Four females were interviewed in an oncology hospital in the north of the state of Paraná, Brazil, prior to brachytherapy treatment. The following question was asked to elicit the subjects’ discourse: “What are your feelings prior to brachytherapy?” Three themes were categorized: the non-authentic being-with-the-other in the hospital; anxiety in the face of the unknown therapy; religiosity or the way to hope. Results show the importance of holistic care to the person experiencing the facts since the subjectivity of care is absorbed by the huge number of rules and institutional norms.