http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12592765&dopt=Abstract

Pflege 2002 Dec;15(6):284-92
Hellige B.
Evangelische Fachhochschule Hannover, Blumhardtstrasse 2, D-30625 Hannover.

There are only a few studies in the German speaking countries available which address the subject of the experience of chronically ill people during the course of their illness.

Therefore it was the intent of this present study to find answers for central nurse science issues:

• How do people who suffer from a chronically progressive course of multiple sclerosis experience the downward trajectory?

• Which strategies do they develop in order to integrate the disease into their lives?

• In what ways does the scientific paradigm of medicine influence the perceptions of the illness and the life with it?

The second part examines some essentials of the study.

The results show that the trajectory is characterized by four phases.

At first the ill person concentrates on the social discussion of the pathogenesis and the medical paradigma.

But with physical experiences, exchange with other affected people and acquired information, those concerned develop a very case-specific knowledge.

Often disillusioned by the medication strategies, based on the experience that their subjectivity and their individuality are not taken into account, they increasingly disapprove the deficit-oriented perspective of the professionals.

They develop distinctly self-caring potentialities.

To identify and support this self-care potentialities should be the very core of nursing.