The Language of Coping: Understanding Filipino Geriatric Patients' Hemodialysis Lived Experiences

The majority of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are undergoing maintenance hemodialyisis. Hemodialysis is a process of removing metabolic waste, other poisons, and excess fluids from the blood and replacing essential blood constituents through a dialysis machine. With hemodialysis causing stress not only to physical status but also to psychological functioning and well-being, the individual will have to strive to cope with it. Coping involves cognitive and/or behavioral efforts exerted by the individual to be able to master, reduce, or tolerate the demands of a situation. Different coping strategies are being utilized by individuals such as thinking positively, having a positive outlook, and positively comparing self to others in similar situations. These techniques are what is referred to as optimistic coping. The study aims to capture the essences or languages of coping according to a select group of Filipino elderly patients with lived hemodialysis experiences. A total of 13 respondents, selected through purposive sampling, were provided with a two-part questionnaire. The first part is the robotfoto, which provides the cartographic sketch of the subjects. The second part is the semistructured interview, with an aide memoir. This is intended to surface the subjects' lived experience relative to hemodialysis experience coping mechanisms and the meaning of coping to them. Data gathered were transcribed and analyzed via cool and warm analyses. A repertory grid was constructed where significant statements were categorized and thematised revealing the languages of coping according to elderly patients with lived hemodialysis experience. Through interviews, the study yielded three themes that reveal the language of coping for Filipino geriatric patients undergoing hemodialyis. These themes consist of (a) coping as scaffolding: or the power to hold on, (b) coping as sailing: or the power to let go, and (c) coping as sanguinity: or the power to see the difference. Coping was defined as an ability (will power, acceptance, positive thinking) that people possess to keep up with certain stressful events, thereby making life more tolerable.