Quality of life of living with a transplanted liver :The issue of returning to normalcy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11157/anzswj-vol30iss1id428Keywords:
Social Work and Health Care, Quality of Life, Chronic Illness, Liver TransplantationAbstract
INTRODUCTION: Advanced technology in medical and pharmacology has increased surgical survival rates for transplant recipients. Therefore, post-transplant care is critical and tightly connected with key focuses on the recipient’s quality of life (QOL). Post-transplant QOL is multifaceted, encompassing morbidity and personal, social, familial and environmental support for recipients. Post-liver transplantation recovery extends well beyond returning home.
METHOD: Building on Wainwright’s research (Wainwright, 2011a, 2011b; Wainwright, Jülich, Waring, Yeung, & Green, 2016), herself a liver transplant recipient, this article reports transplant recipients’ perceptions and experiences after the first three years and discusses how they re-established function in everyday life as they adapted to their new normal to achieve QOL. The research employed interpretive description to interview transcripts and field-notes of 17 liver transplant recipients. Data were evaluated according to inductive thematic analysis. Eschewing the health-related QOL measure for its rigidity and lack of qualitative data, this research captured the lived experiences of liver transplant recipients unlike clinically focused studies.
FINDINGS: The results showed that, although transplantation can make positive changes in their lives, recipients continued to be influenced subtly by illness which can alter their re-conceptualisation and re-definition of QOL and normalcy. The success of a liver transplant does not depend only on the physical care given; to the recipients as the spectre of future ill health and transplant failure continue to be perceived as a constant risks. Ongoing support from family, friends, and healthcare professionals are none-the-less fundamental in the post-transplantation journey.
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