Aims: to comprehend how people who live with chronic venous ulcers perceive their existence towards these lesions; to describe and analyse, from the perspective of Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, how these people comprehend their own existence. Method: this is a study of a qualitative approach using a descriptive phenomenological method. Study setting: Outpatient Wound Healing Centre of the teaching hospital Antônio Pedro, located in the city of Niterói, Rio de Janeiro. Study subjects: adults and elderly who live with chronic venous ulcers and who are currently in outpatient treatment. For data collection, it will be used the Protocol I B - Adapted - Evaluation of patients with venous ulcers (registered in PROAP/UFF); the script of a phenomenological interview and the record of the expressions related to the narrative of the body. Data will be collected according to the phenomenological method proposed by Amedeo Giorgi and discourse analysis will be implemented based on the framework of Merleau-Ponty.
Descriptors: Adults; Aged; Varicose Ulcer; Perception.
Venous ulcers are an epidemiological issue due to its high incidence and prevalence in different population groups, driving patients to have different therapeutic responses, as well as frequent relapses(1). When the lesion grows, the individual presents locomotion difficulties and pain. Besides, the exudate and odour associated with the lesion drive the patient to change his(her) lifestyle, resulting in frustration and lack of hope related to the treatment, considering the slow healing process of ulcers(2).
Bearing in mind what has been said above and highlighting that the aesthetics changes, clinical and functional inconveniences caused by venous ulcers tend to lead patients to social isolation, as they feel embarrassed and ashamed of their current condition(3), it becomes necessary to comprehend the way existential perception of people who live with ulcerative lesions reflect in their lives. Therefore, by describing one's perception regarding the lesions, there is the opportunity to, through one's own body, contemplate the perception of the object through the perception of the space, and then comprehend the existence of one's own body through the existential space.
How do venous ulcers patients realize their existence towards these lesions?
To comprehend how people who live with chronic venous ulcers perceive their existence towards these lesions; to describe and analyse, from the perspective of Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, how these people comprehend their own existence.
This is a descriptive phenomenological study of a qualitative approach. The study setting will be the Outpatient Wound Healing Centre of the teaching hospital Antônio Pedro, located in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro.
The department's patient care flow comes from internal and external referrals. The department receives, per month, an average of 66 patients with many different lesions. Clinical reassessments happen every 15 days; this way, data is expected to be satisfied by saturation, that is to say, approaching all eligible subjects who fit within these following inclusion criteria: adults and elderly patients living with venous ulcers in one or both lower limbs who are also cognitively capable of answering the interview. The exclusion criteria are arterial ulcers and diabetic foot patients.
According to the study schedule, data collection will happen from June to December of 2016. It will be a individually, one-time-only interview, held in the outpatient wound healing centre, using the following data collection instruments: Protocol I B - Adapted - Evaluation of patients with venous ulcers (registered in PROAP/UFF); a script of a phenomenological interview (formulated according to the guiding question, the phenomenological interview will be conducted with the study subjects and recorded using an MP3 player device - the answers will be transcribed afterwards) and the record of the expressions related to the narrative of the body (subjects will be given a piece of paper to express their feelings regarding life with venous ulcers' lesions). Data obtained using Protocol I B - Adapted will be analysed using descriptive statistics and presented in chart form. The interview data will be analysed using Amedeo Giorgi's methodological proposal, which consists of four steps: read entire written account for a sense of the whole; identification of different units of meaning, which can be naturally identified in the statements; the statements are re-expressed in the language of psychological science while remaining faithful to the researched phenomenon; and synthesis of the meaning units into one consistent statement regarding the psychological understanding of the observed phenomenon. After the categorization, discourse analysis based on the framework of Merleau-Ponty will be implemented in the data. The study was approved by the Medical School of Universidade Federal Fluminense (Fluminense Federal University) research ethics committee, under consolidated opinion nº 1.581.358, in compliance with the Resolution nº466, of December 12 of 2012 from the National Board of Health/MS.
Project information: Federal Fluminense University Academic Programme in Healthcare Sciences ongoing dissertation project, submitted to the Medical School of Universidade Federal Fluminense (Fluminense Federal University) research and ethics committee, under the CAAE nº: 51981915.6.0000.5243 and approved under ruling nº 1.581.358 on May 18 of 2016.
All authors participated in the phases of this publication in one or more of the following steps, in According to the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE, 2013): (a) substantial involvement in the planning or preparation of the manuscript or in the collection, analysis or interpretation of data; (b) preparation of the manuscript or conducting critical revision of intellectual content; (c) approval of the versión submitted of this manuscript. All authors declare for the appropriate purposes that the responsibilities related to all aspects of the manuscript submitted to OBJN are yours. They ensure that issues related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the article were properly investigated and resolved. Therefore, they exempt the OBJN of any participation whatsoever in any imbroglios concerning the content under consideration. All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest of financial or personal nature concerning this manuscript which may influence the writing and/or interpretation of the findings. This statement has been digitally signed by all authors as recommended by the ICMJE, whose model is available in http://www.objnursing.uff.br/normas/DUDE_eng_13-06-2013.pdf
Received: 09/16/2016 Revised: 10/21/2016 Approved: 10/21/2016