A qualitative study on the influencing factors of anticipatory grief among family caregivers of terminal-stage cancer patients in the context of narrative medicine / 中国医学伦理学

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveTo explore the influencing factors of anticipatory grief among family caregivers of terminal-stage cancer patients，and provide a reference for formulating intervention programs for anticipatory grief. MethodsAn interview outline was designed，and the descriptive qualitative research method was used.The aim was to select 11 family narrative caregivers of patients in the Department of Medical Oncology，Nanfang Hospital，Southern Medical University for semi-structured in-depth interviews.Based on the social ecology model，using the narrative theory of life and health as the framework，the content analysis method was adopted to analyze the data. ResultsA total of 3 themes and 12 sub-themes were extracted，including the influencing factors at the individual level （narrative literacy，cognitive level towards death，and sense of self-worth），the influencing factors at the interpersonal level （patient’s disease situation，education level，economic status，family narrative connection，peer narrative connection，and narrative connection between doctors and family members），and the influencing factors at the cultural policy level （social culture，physical environment of the ward，and policy level）. ConclusionAnticipatory grief was affected by multiple factors，and multi-dimensional narrative connection should be constructed from individual，interpersonal，family，social，and other levels to prevent caregivers from falling into a narrative lock of single caregiver identity，alleviate the impact of anticipatory grief on caregivers，and improve their quality of life.