Themes of Stressors, Emotional Fatigue, and Communication Challenges Found in Mobile Care Discussion Sessions With Patients Requiring Lifelong Home Parenteral Nutrition Infusions.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

The purpose of this article is to examine themes and topics that emerged from 35 discussion sessions with teens and young adults requiring long-term home parenteral nutrition (HPN) intravenous infusions. The goal was to gain a more detailed understanding of participants' challenges and successes of living with HPN.

METHODS:

These patients were invited to attend 3 discussion group sessions facilitated by health professionals. A secure iPad Mini was selected as the mobile tablet device for hosting these encrypted audio-visual group discussions. Content analysis, a standard research data-sorting technique, was used to summarize the anonymous data. Words, phrases, and topics in patients' discussions were coded and grouped together with similar concepts and subsequently categorized into themes.

RESULTS:

Themes in these discussions were related to patients' daily, complex management of HPN. These "themes" included having multiple repetitive illness-related stressors and how those stressors were managed; managing emotions; communication challenges with professionals, family, friends, and using social media; and lastly, the least frequent but no less important theme discussed was how HPN effects their daily lives.

CONCLUSION:

Teens and young adults living with lifelong HPN face a variety of unique psychological, physical, and emotional stressors and may benefit from numerous methods for managing these challenges.

• Authors: Carol E Smith, Donna Yadrich, Shawna Wright, Lavonne Ridder, Marilyn Werkowitch, Amanda Bruce, Jaime Rachelle M Bonar
• Journal: JPEN. Journal of parenteral and enteral nutrition (JPEN J Parenter Enteral Nutr) Vol. 45 Issue 3 Pg. 499-506 (03 2021) ISSN: 1941-2444 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 32495954 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural)
• Copyright: © 2020 American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition.

Topics

• Adolescent
• Communication
• Emotions
• Fatigue (therapy)
• Humans
• Parenteral Nutrition, Home
• Young Adult