Lumbee women breast cancer survivors stories: understanding the experience

ECU Author/Contributor (non-ECU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)

Cherry Maynor. Beasley (Creator)

Institution

East Carolina University (ECU )

Web Site: http://www.ecu.edu/lib/

Advisor

Martha Raile. Alligood

Abstract: The purpose of this interpretive study was to understand the experiences of Lumbee women breast cancer survivors from the text of their oral stories about their life events related to surviving breast cancer. Lumbees the largest American Indian tribe east of the Mississippi and the largest tribe never to have been confined to a reservation are a unique people and are yet to be addressed in the nursing literature. As an oral people Lumbees use their stories to recall past struggles and to instruct others who are encountering difficulties. Their stories revealed the meaning for them of surviving breast cancer as well as the foundations for their health care decisions. The research method delineated by Alligood and Fawcett within Gadamerian philosophical hermeneutics was used in this study because it allowed the researcher a Lumbee nurse to interpreter the stories leading to an understanding of these women's experiences. As a result of this study the interpreter's understanding of breast cancer survival of Lumbee women changed to now include: a) the reciprocity of the experiences in the personal and communal worlds b) the phases of change are a critical part of survival c) the realization that the personal and communal worlds undergo the same three phases but have different patterns that are used to assist in survival and d) survival is a transformative process for the woman and her community. 

Additional Information

Publication

Dissertation

Language: English

Date: 2011

Keywords

Health Sciences, Nursing, Native American studies

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