A Phenomenological Investigation Of The Experience Of Patients During A Rehabilitation Programme Following A Flexor Tendon Injury To Their Hand

Abstract

Following a traumatic hand injury, people experience a significant disruption to their lives. This qualitative study attempts to describe the lived experience of five people coping with the consequences of an extrinsic flexor tendon injury to their hands. Individual open-ended interviews were undertaken and a phenomenological analysis was used. The findings highlighted several themes, four of which were common to each participant: i) minimising the impact of the injury; ii) struggling and coping; iii) trying to elicit help from others, and iv) feelings of dependency. Implications for the provision of hand therapy services to this client group, suggested by this research, are the need to identify people on whom patients will be dependent and to include them in treatment planning; the need to monitor patients’ mood states; the need for hand therapists to be more wide ranging when identifying and negotiating strategies for managing their rehabilitation time and to take a broader view of the rehabilitation process and not to focus exclusively upon exercise and splinting guidelines.