がんサロンに参加するボランティアの体験

The Experience of Volunteers Participating in a Salon for Cancer Patients and Their Family

要旨

　近年，がん患者・家族の交流の場としてがんサロン（以下，サロン）が設けられてきている．本研究は，がん患者や家族がボランティアとして看護師と協働でサロンを運営している場合において，ボランティアのサロンにおける体験を明らかにすることを目的とした．ボランティア8名に半構造化面接を行い，サロンに対する思いについての語りを抽出した．分析は質的帰納的方法で行った．結果，ボランティアの体験は，【がんで悩む人の元気回復への願い】，【サロンの必要性を実感】，【自己の存在意味の強化】，【対応の困難感】，【メンバーへの信頼】，【自分自身への癒し】の6コアカテゴリーに分類された．ボランティアは，がんで悩む人の力になりたい，元気を取り戻して欲しいという，【がんで悩む人の元気回復への願い】があり，そのためには気持ちを話すことが大切であり，実際共感しあえるなど，【サロンの必要性を実感】した．また，自分の人生を生かしたい，訪問者の役に立てたと実感するという，【自己の存在意味の強化】を体験した．一方，自己嫌悪におちいったり，訪問者の深刻な話に戸惑い，【対応の困難感】を感じた．対応の困難感は，【メンバーへの信頼】を深めることで対処できた．そして，サロンの体験がボランティア自身の気持ちの安定につながり，他者の生き方が学びとなる，自分自身の生かし方がみえてくるなど，【自分自身への癒し】となった．この癒しの体験は，がんサバイバーとして，新たながんに対するコントロール感覚の獲得を意味していると考えられる．医療者は，ボランティアの葛藤やニーズを理解し，共にいることの支援を継続していくことが重要と考える．

Abstract

　The purpose of this study was to evaluate the experiences of volunteers in a "cancer salon" where cancer patients and their families can talk to each other; these volunteers were cancer patients or their families. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 8 volunteers and were qualitatively analyzed.

　The results showed that the experiences of the volunteers could be divided into 6 main categories: "desire to alleviate the mental pain of people with cancer," "realization of the importance of the salon," "increased self-respect," "difficulties in attending to visitors," "reliance on other volunteer members," and "spiritual healing."

　Because the volunteers cherished the desire to alleviate the mental pain of people with cancer, they wanted to help those visiting the salon by making use of their experiences with cancer. Thus, the volunteers realized the importance of the salon in providing emotional support for the cancer patients and their families as these visitors could talk to each other and strike a chord with one another. Furthermore, the volunteers wanted to help as much as possible and realized that they could actually help the visitors; therefore, the salon was the place where they achieved increased self-respect.

　Nevertheless, they experienced difficulties in attending to visitors, because they could not give the visitors useful advice or they experienced compassion for the visitors. However, these difficulties were solved by reliance on other volunteer members.

　The experiences that the volunteers obtained at the cancer salon aided them in learning about other people's way of life, becoming emotionally stable, and making practical use of their experiences. This led to spiritual healing, i.e., they could acquire a new sense of control as cancer survivors.

　At such salons, it is important to provide nursing service that involves nurses who understand the conflicts and needs of volunteers and help them in supporting the patients and their families.