From Memories to Diaries: A Portrait of Hope Captured from the Lens of a Nurse Educator as a Breast Cancer Patient

摘要

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy affecting women worldwide. While it is true that hope influences how these victims view and live their lives, little is known as to how hope is lived and experienced by a breast cancer patient whose professional background and practice is nursing. This narrative-interpretive study purports to create a portrait of a nurse educator whose hope becomes her language of meaning-making. A Filipino nurse educator suffering from breast cancer was used as the subject of this study. Constituting the study's corpus of data is a series of diaries which were religiously written for a period of six months (November 2007-April 2008). Three interesting themes that elucidate the portrait of hope as embodied in the subject's diaries include (a) Stop: Searching for Meaning; (b) Look: Standing through Meaning; and (c) Listen: Sailing through Meaning. Notably, hope serving as a universal human experience is a powerful gift that enables an individual to see meaning amidst painful conditions, stand firmly despite adversities, and live by faith to continue life's journey.