Publication year: 2011
Source: Social Science & Medicine, In Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available online 23 July 2011
Karen Sue, Schaepe
Studies in medical journals regarding the delivery of a cancer diagnosis typically focus on a single clinic episode where the definitive news is disclosed to the patient by the physician. Far less research characterizes the diagnosis in the way patients and their family members often describe it: as a longitudinal, multi-sited search process culminating in a news-telling and realization event. This article analyzes lay accounts of learning a cancer diagnosis drawing on ethnographic interviews among a purposive sample of 28 patients recently diagnosed with leukemia, myeloma, or lymphoma and 30 of their family caregivers. The participants, recruited at a large…