Exploring the Meaning of Quality of Life

The current ANS featured article is titled “Analysis and Evaluation of Conceptual Model for Health-Related Quality of Life Employing Fawcett and DeSanto-Madeya’s Critique Framework” by Min Kyeong Jang, PhD, KOAPN, RN and Catherine Vincent, PhD, RN.  In this article, the authors examine the meanings of this construct in research and in practice, and point to the importance of adequate definitions and meanings for both research and practice.  You can download this article at no cost while it is featured; we hope you will and will also share your responses to the authors’ work here!  Dr. Jang shared this information about this work for ANS readers:

We are delighted that Advances in Nursing Science (ANS) invited us to contribute to the ANS blog. In the field of nursing, health-related quality of life (HRQOL) has been a significant issue that is essential to holistic assessment of patients’ health. In 1994, Wilson and Cleary developed a HRQOL model, and in

Dr. Carol Ferrans with Dr. Min Kyeong Jang

2005, this model was revised by Ferrans and colleagues to clarify the relationships among the theory concepts, expanding it into an ecological model. The revised HRQOL model was recognized for its promise for future use in HRQOL research and practice, but no previous authors had formally critiqued the model. In our article, we provide a comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the HRQOL model, which we hope will be useful for advanced nursing care and research.

In this article, we identified how the relevant concepts and propositions of the HRQOL model align with the nursing metaparadigm and maintain consistency. In addition, we found that this HRQOL model can easily and comprehensively be applied to improve nursing research and practice. One example is that this HRQOL model can be applicable as a guide for synthesizing an integrated literature review. Guided by HRQOL model, Min Kyeong and colleagues identified and synthesized essential key factors influencing mammography screening among breast cancer survivors from 2000 to 2017, published in the Oncology Nursing Forum. (Figure 1 – An example of applying the HRQOL model). Guided by the HRQOL model, the conceptual model of factors influencing surveillance mammography adherence was able to integrate all relevant key factors. Also, we believe that the most important advantage of using the HRQOL model is to ensure comprehensively covering important factors, some of which can be easily overlooked.

Briefly, Min Kyeong Jang, PhD, RN, KOAPN has been involved in cancer treatment and research for more than 10 years, while simultaneously developing expertise in methodological studies. To be specific, HRQOL is one of her research interests, and Dr. Carol Ferrans, PhD, RN, FAAN (Harriet H. Werley Endowed Chair in Nursing Research) was her PhD mentor (See photo above – Drs. Jang and Ferrans). To develop accurate QOL instruments for use in Korean health care research, Dr. Jang guided the translation of all 15 versions of the Ferrans and Powers QOL instrument, and she also studied the methodologies of theory analysis and theory development with Dr. Catherine Vincent as her guide (co-author).

In collaboration with various research teams, Min Kyeong Jang has been pursuing investigations involving QOL, cancer-related symptoms, chronic pain relief interventions, exercise program development, and sarcopenia, with the ultimate goal of enhancing survivorship care for cancer patients. She is currently working as a postdoctoral fellow at both the University of Illinois Cancer Center and University of Illinois at Chicago College of Nursing with Dr. Ardith Z. Doorenbos and colleagues. She believes that the HRQOL model merits examination to further assess its applicability and usefulness within nursing science; thus, she is applying this model to provision of supportive care for patients.

Jang, M. K., Hershberger, P. E., Kim, S., Collins, E., Quinn, L. T., Park, C. G., & Ferrans, C. E. (2019, November). Factors Influencing Surveillance Mammography Adherence Among Breast Cancer Survivors. In Oncology nursing forum (Vol. 46, No. 6, p. 701). Used by permission

Figure 1.  An example of applying the HRQOL model

Jang, M. K., Hershberger, P. E., Kim, S., Collins, E., Quinn, L. T., Park, C. G., & Ferrans, C. E. (2019, November). Factors Influencing Surveillance Mammography Adherence Among Breast Cancer Survivors. In Oncology nursing forum (Vol. 46, No. 6, p. 701).

Figure 2.  Drs. Jang and Ferrans