Embodied care at a distance: How virtual consultations reshape bodily presence and trust in cancer rehabilitation in women with breast cancer or ductal carcinoma in situ

Abstract

Introduction

Virtual consultations are increasingly being used in cancer rehabilitation, yet little is known about how the virtual consultation format shapes patients’ sense of embodied presence and relational care. This study explores how women diagnosed with breast cancer or ductal carcinoma in situ experience rehabilitative virtual consultations with nurses and focuses on how virtual consultations influence bodily presence, body modalities, and relational interaction.

Methods

An exploratory qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured telephone interviews with fourteen women who had participated in a nurse-led rehabilitative virtual consultation one year after treatment. Using Braun and Clarke's Reflexive Thematic Analysis, we analysed the data with particular attention to how digital mediation reconfigured embodied presence and relational care.

Results

Across the dataset, virtual consultations were experienced as altering body modalities and reducing embodied presence when bodily matters were addressed on-screen. Patients experienced vulnerability associated with the absence of physical co-presence and touch but also highlighted how the home environment created a sense of calm and safety. The analysis generated one overarching theme, The Body's Vulnerabilities in the Virtual Space, with four subthemes showing how virtual consultations continuously shifted between connection and disconnection, and how familiarity with the nurse supported relational grounding.

Discussion

The findings demonstrate that virtual consultations reconfigure embodied presence in cancer rehabilitation, which requires patients and nurses to negotiate new body modalities shaped by technology and by the environments from which they participate in the virtual consultation. These dynamics influence vulnerability, trust, and relational care, which underscores the need for digital health practices that recognize spatial embodiment and actively support embodied engagement at a distance.