Self-rating and external rating of how women cope with breast cancer in the perioperative phase

Abstract

Little is known both about how women suffering from breast cancer cope with their illness in the perioperative phase and about the ability of nurses to assess this. By means of the self-rating and external rating versions respectively of the Bernese Coping Modes (BEFO), it was determined how breast cancer patients cope with their illness during primary surgical therapy. External rating was carried out by the nurses and two researchers. The nurses' rating based on their daily care experiences, and the researcher's rating based on a half-standardized interview. Participants were given the BEFO setf-rating questionnaire. As with the patients themselves, the nurses and team members rated attention and care (H(A) 90,5-100%.), tackling (H(A) 66,7-100%), passive co-operation (H(A) 59.5-100%) and acceptance/stoicism (H(A) 64,3-97,6%) as the strongest forms of coping. In ranking order of coping modes the researchers rated dissimulation and isolation/suppression and the nurses rated altruism much higher than the patients themselves. Several forms of coping revealed a clear dependence on age. The discrepancy between the ranking order of the nurses' rating versions and the patients' self-ratings were discussed on the basis of empirical findings on communication events between nurses and patients.