ABSTRACT
Background: Illness narratives for veterans living with heart failure (HF) have been largely unexplored, yet HF is a significant and impactful illness affecting the lives of many veterans. Methods: This study used narrative inquiry to explore the domains of psychosocial adjustments using the model of adjustment to illness, including self-schema, world schema, and meaning. Results: Five illness narratives of veterans living with HF were cocreated and explored domains which were found across all the narratives explored in this study. Emergent themes included: uniqueness of the veteran experience and the social, historical, and cultural context of narrator and researcher. Conclusions: Veterans living with HF are a unique population who experience changes in their self-schema, world schema, and meaning through their illness experience. These findings have important implications for interdisciplinary health care research and clinical practice, providing important insight into how people live with chronic illness.
