Abstract
Twenty people with inoperable lung cancer, and their carers, were interviewed at regular intervals for up to 1 year concerning their illness experiences and physical, psychological, social, and spiritual needs. When talking about their experiences of diagnosis of lung cancer, participants’ accounts generally took the form of extended stories, which were unexpected to the research team in form and content. These unexpected factors led the authors to think that patients may at difficult times launch into the rhythms and cadences of natural poetry. This opened up different perspectives on, and responses to, the narratives by clinicians and researchers. Because people often respond more directly and emotionally to poetry, a clinician interpreting a patient’s “history of the presenting complaint” in poetic form may be enabled to appreciate more of the emotional toll of the cancer journey; it also raises new challenges in the research process regarding processes of re-presentation and voice.
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