Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here for more information

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Qualitative Health Research
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Web of Science (20)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Thorne, S.
Right arrow Articles by Armstrong, E.-A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Thorne, S.
Right arrow Articles by Armstrong, E.-A.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Hope and Probability: Patient Perspectives of the Meaning of Numerical Information in Cancer Communication

Sally Thorne

University of British Columbia School of Nursing in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

T. Gregory Hislop

British Columbia Cancer Research Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Margot Kuo

Elizabeth-Anne Armstrong

University of British Columbia School of Nursing in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Although the complexities inherent in human communication make it a difficult target for empirical investigation and systematic interpretation, it is well recognized that patientprovider communication can have either a powerfully negative or positive influence on the experience of cancer. Drawing on an extensive data set derived from interviews with 200 cancer patients, the authors examine the impact of information provided in numerical form within cancer care communications from the patient perspective. In this context, they present findings related to various uses and abuses of numbers within cancer care communication, and illustrate how numerical information constitutes a specialized communication form with considerable potency for shaping the cancer experience. In particular, accounts of the thematic relationship between numbers and hope, from the perspective of those on the receiving end of cancer care, provide a unique perspective from which to interpret issues of compassion, caring, and informed consent.

Key Words: cancer • communication • physician-patient relations • informed consent

Qualitative Health Research, Vol. 16, No. 3, 318-336 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1049732305285341
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Qual Health ResHome page
J. Olumide Olufowote
A Structurational Analysis of Informed Consent to Treatment: (Re)productions of Contradictory Sociohistorical Structures in Practitioners' Interpretive Schemes
Qual Health Res, June 1, 2009; 19(6): 802 - 814.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Qual Health ResHome page
S. S. Y. Ching, I. M. Martinson, and T. K. S. Wong
Reframing: Psychological Adjustment of Chinese Women at the Beginning of the Breast Cancer Experience
Qual Health Res, March 1, 2009; 19(3): 339 - 351.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med.Home page
L. R. Evans, E. A. Boyd, G. Malvar, L. Apatira, J. M. Luce, B. Lo, and D. B. White
Surrogate Decision-Makers' Perspectives on Discussing Prognosis in the Face of Uncertainty
Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., January 1, 2009; 179(1): 48 - 53.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 BMJHome page
S. Audrey, J. Abel, J. M Blazeby, S. Falk, and R. Campbell
What oncologists tell patients about survival benefits of palliative chemotherapy and implications for informed consent: qualitative study
BMJ, July 31, 2008; 337(jul31_3): a752 - a752.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Qual Health ResHome page
E. Donovan-Kicken and J. J. Bute
Uncertainty of Social Network Members in the Case of Communication-Debilitating Illness or Injury
Qual Health Res, January 1, 2008; 18(1): 5 - 18.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Evid. Based Nurs.Home page
K. Moore Schaefer
Patients with cancer used numerical information to calculate the odds and mobilise their coping responses
Evid. Based Nurs., January 1, 2007; 10(1): 31 - 31.
[Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 NEJMHome page
O. Dammann and A. Leviton
Neuroimaging and the Prediction of Outcomes in Preterm Infants.
N. Engl. J. Med., August 17, 2006; 355(7): 727 - 729.
[Full Text] [PDF]