Living experiences among patients after occupational trauma injury: A qualitative descriptive study

30^th World Congress on Advanced Nursing Practice

September 04-06, 2017 | Edinburgh, Scotland

Yen-Ting Lin and Yun-Fang Tsai

Graduate Chang Gung University, Tao-Yuan, Taiwan

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Adv Practice Nurs

Abstract :

Most occupational trauma studies have focused on postoperative care and physical reconstruction but few studies have explored living experiences among these patients. This study aimed to explore occupational trauma injury patients� living experiences after injury. In this qualitative descriptive study, participants were recruited from a trauma plastic ward in a medical center of the northern Taiwan. Patients who received their first reconstruction surgery over one month were invited to participate in this study. Data were collected in face-to-face, audiotaped interviews using a semi-structured interview guide. Verbatim interview transcripts were analysed using content analysis. Findings revealed that participants� living experiences (N=15) after injury were related to three themes: impact, chaos and recover. Participants had impacted on facing with sudden occupational trauma events, witnessing the collapse of their own limbs, and suffering from the tragedy and emergency medical treatment. Then, participants felt chaos by repeating recall of the trauma events, occurring complicated and negative emotional distresses, not confirming their physical status, and experiencing multi-dimensional changes in their lives. During this process, they also started to try to overcome from their losses, have new beliefs, accept the traumatic events, and redefine their abilities and self-worth toward recovery. Since most patients with occupational trauma injury were the key financial resource of family, the injury had a great impact on the entire family. Moreover their reconstruction and rehabilitation were a difficult and long process. Nurses can understand their experiences and provide multi-dimensional care to help them to recover from the trauma.

Biography :

Yen-Ting Lin is a doctoral student in Graduate Institute of Clinical Medical Sciences, College of Medicine at Chang Gung University. Yun-Fang Tsai has her expertise in geriatric and mental health care. She is the Chair of School of Nursing, Chang Chung University. This school was ranked in the Top 10 out of 26,000+ degreegranting institutions of higher education worldwide in Nursing by the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) in 2017. Yun-Fang Tsai has published over 150 papers in reputed journals.