Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Jun;2(2):226-33.
doi: 10.5812/nms.11243. Epub 2013 Jun 27.

The perceived threat in adults with leukemia undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Zahra Farsi  1 , Nahid Dehghan Nayeri  2 , Reza Negarandeh  2
Affiliations

The perceived threat in adults with leukemia undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Zahra Farsi et al. Nurs Midwifery Stud. 2013 Jun.

Abstract

Background: Leukemia and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) create physical, psychological, social, and spiritual distresses in patients. Understanding this threatening situation in adults with leukemia undergoing HSCT will assist health care professionals in providing holistic care to the patients.

Objectives: The aim of the present study was exploring the perceived threat in adults with leukemia undergoing HSCT.

Patients and methods: This article is part of a longitudinal qualitative study which used the grounded theory approach and was conducted in 2009-2011. Ten adults with acute leukemia scheduled for HSCT were recruited from the Hematology-Oncology Research Center and Stem Cell Transplantation, Shariati Hospital in Tehran, Iran. A series of pre-transplant and post-transplant in-depth interviews were held in the hospital's HSCT wards. Totally, 18 interviews were conducted. Three written narratives were also obtained from the participants. The Corbin and Strauss approach was used to analyze the data.

Results: Perceived threat was one of the main categories that emerged from the data. This category included four subcategories, "inattention to the signs and symptoms", "doubt and anxiety", "perception of danger and time limitation" and "change of life conditions", which occurred in linear progression over time.

Conclusion: Suffering from leukemia and experiencing HSCT are events that are uniquely perceived by patients. This threatening situation can significantly effect perception of patients and cause temporary or permanent alterations in patients' lives. Health care professionals can help these patients by deeper understanding of their experiences and effective interventions.

Keywords: Cancer; Fear; Grounded theory; Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation; Leukemia; Threat.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Farsi Z, Nayeri ND, Negarandeh R. The coping process in adults with acute leukemia undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. J Nurs Res. 2012;20(2):99–109. doi: 10.1097/jnr.0b013e318257b5e0. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Arslan S, Celebioglu A, Tezel A. Depression and hopelessness in Turkish patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy. Jpn J Nurs Sci. 2009;6(2):105–10. doi: 10.1111/j.1742-7924.2009.00127.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Facts . The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. 2012; Available from: http://www.lls.org/content/nationalcontent/resourcecenter/freeeducationm....
    1. Karimi M, Mosallanejad L, Abdolahi Fard M. [Liver enzyme assessment in thalassemia major patients who underwent bone marrow transplantation, Shiraz 2002]. J Med Res. 2004;2(3):62–70.
    1. Russell C, Harcourt D, Henderson L, Marks DI. Patients' experiences of appearance changes following allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. Cancer Nurs. 2011;34(4):315–21. doi: 10.1097/NCC.0b013e3181f8f884. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources