Gender Differences in the Experience of Coronary Artery Surgery

Abstract

This treatise outlines a plan to explore, from the patient's point of view, the lived experience of undergoing and recovering from coronary artery surgery. It is postulated that men and women experience widely differing reactions to undergoing this surgical procedure. This proposed qualitative study was planned to follow an adaptation of Streubert's (1991) phenomenological methodology, using purposive sampling of people experiencing elective coronary artery surgery at a large private hospital based in New South Wales, Australia. The planned sample would initially be planned to include four men and four women however, the exact number of participants required would depend on when data saturation was reached. The proposed method of data collection was to be a face-to-face interview, one week after surgery, but prior to discharge. A subsequent follow up telephone interview was to be conducted during the sixth post-operative week. The projected findings, based on the literature review, indicate that men and women had contrasting psychosocial concerns and encountered both common and unique physical symptoms. As such, the meaning of this lived experience was different for men and for women.