Resilience in adults with colorectal cancer: Refining a conceptual model using a descriptive qualitative approach.
Dan Luo, Manuela Eicher, Kate White
PMID 36239211WHAT IT FOUND
Adults recovering from colorectal cancer described resilience as seeking reasons to keep going, striving for normality, managing emotions and practical problems, using family and healthcare support, and redefining themselves.
These themes describe patient experiences, not tested outcomes.
Key findings
01Participants perceived resilience as striving to live normally, including returning to work or maintaining social life during treatment.
02Nurse support was valued for practical stoma care and for making hospital stays feel less like a hospital.
03The preliminary resilience model only partly reflected patients' experiences, so unmapped findings were added to a refined model.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study included 12 participants from one hospital, so the themes may not apply to other settings or cultures. Most participants were women, with 8 women and 4 men, and no male participant reported actively seeking family support, so male experiences may be underrepresented. Participants had completed curative-intent treatment within 6 months and could speak English, so findings do not cover palliative care, later survivorship or non-English speakers. The model is exploratory and based on patient descriptions, not tested against outcomes or intervention effectiveness. Qualitative description aimed to reduce cultural interpretation, but some latent meaning may have been missed.
Declared interests
No specific grant from any funding agency was received, and the authors declared no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that a nursing resilience intervention works or that nurses can improve patient adaptation by using the model. The study describes 12 patients' experiences and refines a conceptual model, and it did not test patient outcomes.