Morris, N;
(2015)
When health means suffering: mammograms, pain and compassionate care.
European Journal of Cancer Care
, 24
(4)
pp. 483-492.
10.1111/ecc.12272.
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Abstract
The X-ray mammogram remains the cornerstone of most public health programmes aimed at the early diagnosis of breast cancer. Its virtues of safety, reliability and cheapness maintain its established position, and Western social and cultural traditions of ambivalence to pain push any questions concerning the painfulness of the procedure into the background. As part of a larger UK/USA-based empirical study, we undertook a qualitative analysis of women's accounts of pain experienced in mammograms and their reaction to it, comparing their accounts with professional views and advice to patients as reflected in interviews, patient leaflets and practice guidelines. We found considerable variability of experience and reaction to pain among patients, and indications of similar variability in professionals' views and practice, contrasting with a uniformly reassuring message in formal institutional advice. We suggest that in practice professional work-arounds and patients' felt obligation to tolerate pain bridge this gap, but that action to tackle the problems of dropout and the emotional and operational costs of the current system is nonetheless needed. The need is for concerned groups to combine to establish a serious and sustained programme of amelioration and innovative technological development to assure more compassionate patient care and operational efficiency.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | When health means suffering: mammograms, pain and compassionate care |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1111/ecc.12272 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecc.12272 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2014 The Author. European Journal of Cancer Care published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | Breast cancer diagnosis, mammograms, pain, patient experience, public policy, screening programmes |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Science and Technology Studies |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1459429 |
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