PURPOSE
This study was a qualitative study to explore and understand the adaptation experiences of hemodialysis among women with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) and to develop a substantive theory using the grounded theory method.
METHODS
Participants were 15 female patients who underwent hemodialysis for ESRD treatment from three general hospitals. The data were collected through in-depth individual interviews.
RESULTS
The adaptation experience of participants was emerged as a process of taking care and enduring. There were four adaptation stages as a negative, despair, receptive, and maintenance period in reference to hemodialysis. The causal conditions were a vague expectations of recovery and refusal to undergo hemodialysis. The core phenomenon was that of confinement to dialysis machine. The contextual conditions for this phenomenon were the loss of femininity. They used action/interaction strategies such as transition their life with a focus on hemodialysis, seeking information, and learning how to take care of their body. Through this process, they had a strong will to live or had sustained their life.
CONCLUSION
These results indicate that there is a need for nurses to understand the different steps of adaptation experiences of the given patient population. It is necessary for nurses to support them to lead their life as much normal as possible and improve the adaptation experience of ESRD.

Citations

• Progressing the understanding of chronic illness and its treatment: A post-human, ethological understanding of haemodialysis
  Victoria Cluley, Helen Eborall, Katherine Hull, Niamh Quann, James O Burton
  Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine.2024; 28(5): 716.     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
• Ethnography on the Health Life of Hemodialysis Patients with Chronic Kidney Failure
  Jinhyang Yang, Myung-Ok Cho
  Korean Journal of Adult Nursing.2021; 33(2): 156.     CrossRef
• An Alternative View of a Hemodialysis–Life Balance: Life Reorganization of Korean Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis
  Songsoon Kim, Jinhyang Yang
  Journal of Transcultural Nursing.2021; 32(6): 664.     CrossRef
• The Illness Adaptation Process of Patients Suffering from Atrial Fibrillation: Living a Life Managing the Silent Insurrection of the Heart
  A-Leum Han, Suhye Kwon
  Korean Journal of Adult Nursing.2020; 32(3): 326.     CrossRef
• Gender-based experiences on the survival of chronic renal failure patients under hemodialysis for more than 20 years
  Mi-Kyoung Cho, Gisoo Shin
  Applied Nursing Research.2016; 32: 262.     CrossRef