TY - JOUR
T1 - Repeated use of rich pictures to explore changes in subjective experiences over time of patients with advanced cancer
AU - Bood, Zarah M.
AU - Scherer-Rath, Michael
AU - Sprangers, Mirjam A. G.
AU - Timmermans, Liesbeth
AU - van Wolde, Ellen
AU - Cristancho, Sayra M.
AU - Heyning, Fenna
AU - Russel, Silvia
AU - van Laarhoven, Hanneke W. M.
AU - Helmich, Esther
N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by The Young Academy, Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, and the Dutch Cancer Society (grant number 11507). We thank the patient organization SPKS (Stichting voor Patiënten met Kanker aan het Spijsverteringskanaal) for their participation in the analysis of the data of the first rich pictures set. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Authors. Cancer Reports published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.
PY - 2022/1
Y1 - 2022/1
N2 - Background: The combination of verbal and visual tools may help unravel the experiences of advanced cancer patients. However, most previous studies have focused on a specific symptom, at only one moment in time. We recently found that a specific visual tool, originating from systems thinking, that is, rich pictures (RPs), could provide a more comprehensive view of the experiences of patients with advanced cancer. Aims: To examine whether the repeated use of RPs can make changes in subjective experiences of patients living with advanced cancer visible over time. Methods and results: We performed a prospective study with a generic qualitative approach that was mostly informed by the process of grounded theory. We invited patients to make an RP twice, at the start of the study, and again after 2 months. Both RP drawing sessions were directly followed by a semi-structured interview. Patients with all types of solid tumors, above the age of 18, and with a diagnosis of advanced, incurable cancer, were eligible. Eighteen patients participated and 15 patients were able to draw an RP twice. In eight RP-sets, considerable differences between the first and second RP were noticeable. Two patterns were distinguished: (1) a change (decline or improvement) in physical health (five patients), and/or (2) a change in the way patients related to cancer (three patients). Conclusion: RPs are a valuable qualitative research method that can be used to explore the experiences of patients with advanced cancer, not only at a single point in time but also over time.
AB - Background: The combination of verbal and visual tools may help unravel the experiences of advanced cancer patients. However, most previous studies have focused on a specific symptom, at only one moment in time. We recently found that a specific visual tool, originating from systems thinking, that is, rich pictures (RPs), could provide a more comprehensive view of the experiences of patients with advanced cancer. Aims: To examine whether the repeated use of RPs can make changes in subjective experiences of patients living with advanced cancer visible over time. Methods and results: We performed a prospective study with a generic qualitative approach that was mostly informed by the process of grounded theory. We invited patients to make an RP twice, at the start of the study, and again after 2 months. Both RP drawing sessions were directly followed by a semi-structured interview. Patients with all types of solid tumors, above the age of 18, and with a diagnosis of advanced, incurable cancer, were eligible. Eighteen patients participated and 15 patients were able to draw an RP twice. In eight RP-sets, considerable differences between the first and second RP were noticeable. Two patterns were distinguished: (1) a change (decline or improvement) in physical health (five patients), and/or (2) a change in the way patients related to cancer (three patients). Conclusion: RPs are a valuable qualitative research method that can be used to explore the experiences of patients with advanced cancer, not only at a single point in time but also over time.
KW - cancer
KW - metastasis
KW - methods
KW - patients
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85111321976&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1002/cnr2.1428
DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/cnr2.1428
M3 - Article
C2 - 34313027
SN - 2573-8348
VL - 5
JO - Cancer Reports
JF - Cancer Reports
IS - 1
M1 - e1428
ER -