Title of project: The ward based experiences of boys and young men hospitalised with life
changing conditions
Director of Studies: Professor Alan White
Second Supervisor: Professor Andrew Sparkes
Overview of project
Boys and young men make up a disproportionate number of cancer patients, victims of serious
accidents (including burns and spinal injury) and congenital urological conditions, all of which can
necessitate long periods of hospitalization. The incidence of cancer is increasing in this age band,
with a greater chance of successful treatment, and there are now a number of very seriously injured
young men that would not previously survived, resulting in more debilitating conditions and an
increasing emphasis on survivorship. For many of these men the events leading up to their
hospitalisation will have been traumatic and quick, leaving little time to come to terms with their new
circumstances. This cohort of patients have been under-researched in terms of their psycho-social
needs and it is still not known how best to care for young men to maximise their chances of a
successful physical and emotional recovery(Campbell-Enns & Woodgate, 2013; B. Zebrack,
Isaacson, & Steensma, 2012). This study will explore the experiences of young men in a variety of
different clinical settings to obtain a narrative account of their circumstances; this would be supported
by interviews with a further sample of discharged boys and young men to obtain the post event
perspective.
Link to NHS Priorities
This research will look at the improvement of the patients stay, reduction of complications and the
NHS Improving Quality need to improve survivorship in teenagers and young people (NHSIQ, 2015)
Link to Faculty Research Themes
The proposed project links to Faculty Research Themes around health, health inequalities and multidisciplinary working.
Outline of project including proposed timescales
Narrative analysis is a particularly good choice for researchers interested in complex, subjective
experiences, as well as intentions, patterns of reasoning, and attempts to find meaning in personal
experiences (Woike, 2008). It is though narratives in the form of self-stories that people provide
situation-specific answers to the questions: ‘Who am I?’ and ‘What is my life about?’ In telling such
stories to self and others, people give meaning to their experiences and create a narrative identity
within the flow and continuously changing contexts of life in ways that connect the past, present and
the future (Medved and Brockmeier, 2004). Most importantly, as Sparkes (2014), and Sparkes et al.
(2012) illustrate in relation serious illness, narrative are actors that do things, influencing how people
interpret their embodied selves in specific sets of circumstance, how they behave towards themselves
and others, and how they orientate themselves to the future.
This project, therefore, will explore the narratives of young men who have been hospitalised with a life
changing condition in order to gain a greater appreciation of how they come to give meaning to their
bodies and sense of self in the new circumstances they find themselves in, how these meanings can
change over time, and the conditions and events that support the development of positive body-self
relationships as part of the transformative process of constructing a ‘survivor’ identity. Using criterionbased sampling and critical case sampling, the study will focus on teenagers and young adult (TYA)
males in a cancer unit, an uro-congenital unit, a trauma setting, and a spinal injury unit. Specific
attention will be paid to the narrative environment as advocated by Gubrium and Holstein (2009) and
how this affects the storytelling process in terms of what participants say, how and when they say it,
and for what purposes.
Data will be collected via direct observation and engagement with the participants, and via life history
interviews at various phases during their stay in hospital. Regarding the former, specific attention will
be paid to the narrative environment as advocated by Gubrium and Holstein (2009) and how this
affects the storytelling process in terms of what participants say, how and when they say it, to whom
and for what purposes. How the leading ‘big stories’ that circulate in various settings relate to the
individual ‘little stories’ that participants communicate within them will also be explored.
Complementing this, the life history interviews will be used to explore the narrative resources that the
individuals bring to the setting and how these operate to shape their interpretation of events and
settings. ‘Follow up interviews will explore and changes in these interpretations and the conditions
that led to the development of a ‘survivor’ identity (or not), as well as the hopes that participants have
for their futures. The data will subjected to a thematic, structural and dialogic narrative analysis
(Sparkes & Smith, 2014).
Time scale 3-6 years
References
Campbell-Enns, H. J., & Woodgate, R. L. (2013). Young men with Cancer: a literature review. Cancer
Nursing, 36(1), E36–E47. doi:doi: 10.1097/NCC.0b013e31824e8c58
Gubrium, J., & Holstein, J. (2009). Analyzing narrative reality. London: Sage.
Medved, M., & Brockmeier, J. (2004). Making sense of traumatic experiences: Telling a life with fragile
X syndrome. Qualitative Health Research, 14, 741-759.
Sparkes, A. (2014). When bodies need stories: Narrative analysis in action. In: M. O’Neill, B. Roberts,
& A. Sparkes (Eds). Advances in biographical methods: Creative applications (pp. 30-42). London:
Routledge
Sparkes, A., & Smith, B. (2014). Qualitative research methods in sport, exercise and health: From
process to product. London: Routledge.
Sparkes, A., Pérez-Samaniego, V., & Smith, B. (2012). Social comparison processes, narrative
mapping, and their shaping of the cancer experience: A case study of an elite athlete. Health: An
Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, 16, 467-488.
Woike, B. (2008). The state of the story in personality psychology. Social and Personality Psychology
Compass, 2, 434-443.
Zebrack, B., Isaacson, S., & Steensma, D. (2012). Psychosocial care of adolescent young adult
patients with cancer and survivors. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 30(11), 1221–1226.
Further information
To apply you must be eligible for NHS Continuing Professional Development (CPD) funding and have
the support of your line manager in writing. General enquiries should be directed by email to the
Faculty Research Director r.hogston@leedsbeckett.ac.uk to discuss the project further please contact
the Director of Studies http://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/staff/professor-alan-white/.
Applications should be made on line here
http://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/research/research-degrees/research-studentships-andfees-only-bursaries/