Purpose
This study was performed to explore the contexts and meanings of health life among patients with chronic kidney failure undergoing hemodialysis. Methods: The ethnography steps presented by Spradley were utilized. The participants were 12 patients from two hemodialysis centers. Data were collected by iterative fieldwork through in-depth interviews and participant observations and analyzed using text analysis and taxonomic methods. Field notes were used along with interviews and dialogue between authors to enhance interpretation. Results: Five themes on the health life of participants emerged: experiencing the loss of normality of the body and the collapse of daily life, establishing the role of dialysis patients, reorganizing the network, building an integrated coping pattern, and new normalization of the pattern of life. Patients' experiences differed in health life's patterns and meanings according to various individual situations and sociocultural contexts. Conclusion: Establishing new patterns of life of hemodialysis patients was a normalization process to ensure the adequacy of physical indicators and stability amid physical, emotional, and social challenges. To achieve quality health life, patients should be provided with tailored nursing interventions that consider their individual, social, and cultural situations.

Citations

• A qualitative meta-synthesis of the essence of patient experiences of dialysis
  Soyoung Jang, Eunyoung E. Suh, Yoonhee Seok
  Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing.2025; 55(1): 119.     CrossRef
• Predictors of self-management behaviors among patients undergoing hemodialysis
  Yusun Park, Sunyoung Jung
  Scientific Reports.2025;[Epub]     CrossRef
• The impact of illness acceptance, depression, and social support on health-related quality of life in older adults on hemodialysis: A descriptive study
  Eunha Lee, Jungmin Kim
  Journal of Korean Gerontological Nursing.2025; 27(1): 106.     CrossRef
• Predictors of psychosocial adaptation in haemodialysis patients according to haemodialysis vintage: a quantitative study
  Ae Kyung Chang, Ah Young Kim
  Contemporary Nurse.2025; : 1.     CrossRef
• Healthy life of Korean patients with chronic kidney failure undergoing hemodialysis: A situation-specific nursing theory
  Jinhyang Yang, Myung-Ok Cho, Haeok Lee
  Applied Nursing Research.2022; 65: 151584.     CrossRef
• The Effect of Uncertainty on the Physiological Indexes of Hemodialysis Patients: Serial Mediating Effects of Uncertainty Appraisal and Self-care Behavior
  Mi Kyung Kim, Eun Hee Jang
  Korean Journal of Adult Nursing.2022; 34(1): 51.     CrossRef
• Development and Evaluation of an Online Self-Management Program in Patients with Chronic Kidney Failure Undergoing Hemodialysis
  Jinhyang Yang
  Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing.2022; 29(4): 531.     CrossRef

PURPOSE
The research aims to understand the lived experience of the caregivers of chronic renal failure(CRF) patients and its essential meaning. The results of the study can be used as basic materials for developing comprehensive intervention methods of care givers of CRF patients. METHOD: The research used van Manen's hermeneutic and phenomenological research methods in order to describe the lived experience and to understand its meaning. It concentrates on the understanding the essence of experience and consists of existential survey, hermeneutic and phenomenological reflection and hermeneutic writings. Participants in this research were five women care givers of CRF patients who had hemolysis at C university hospital in a metropolitan city, the period of data collection was from July 27 to Sep. 4, 2004 and major data of results in the following 5 essential themes. 'sole responsibility for the patient enduring everything', 'creating their own field', 'heavy and painful life without hope of their private life', 'wishing not to be inherited and consoling each other'. CONCLUSION: The above findings point out that the experience of care givers of CRF patient affected and changed all parts of an individual life and his or her family life. Therefore, it suggests that total family nursing care must be considered in order to provide the holistic caring for CRF patients and their care givers.