The Experience of Chronic Illness in Rural Australia

Abstract

This is an interpretive phenomenological study of the experience of chronic illness. The meanings of living with chronic illness have been extrapolated from the narratives of eighteen people, with various long term health problems, who helped with the work. These people gave rich descriptions of their everyday lives of living with chronic illness in a rural Australian setting. The experience of living with chronic illness is re-presented in terms of the past, present and future. The study reveals predicaments which the participants share. The experience of chronic illness for these participants entailed a life which was full of struggle to maintain a reasonable quality of life for the person and their family. The participants in the study took stock of the effects chronic illness has made to their lives and what they have lost or missed through long term illness. They have had to learn to exert themselves in order to maintain their precarious health status and they are learning to receive help from a variety of sources in order to maintain their social existence. They face lives of continued worry about their health, and periods of extreme loneliness. From the narratives it was evident that there were gaps in the service provided to the participants. Living in rural Australia presented some of the participants with problems travelling to see specialists and this meant they were limited in their choice of medical specialist. While they were all given professional medical treatment, professional care was not evident. These apparent shortfalls in the service deserve further investigation. Indeed, they could become fertile ground for the expansion of nursing services to meet the challenges presented by people who are chronically ill.