Abstract

Cancer patients facing terminal illness have the most complex psychological and reluctant feeling, especially for middle age adults. This paper aims at exploring the middle-age cancer patients' terminal experience from the psychological profile in hospice home care. The research adopted the purposive sampling method and collected data though participatory observation and in-depth interviews. The data were analyzed by the phenomenology qualitative method, and the research field was located in the hospice home care in north Taiwan. In overview, there were four psychological categories from interviewing middle age cancer patients about their terminal experiences in hospice home care, namely: fear, restlessness, depression, as well as ambivalence. Regarding fear, there were three issues that emerged form this theme, which are: (1) fear of inexplicability; (2) fear of no treatment (3) fear of unknown world. Regarding to restlessness, there were three issues under this theme, as namely: (1) irritable mood (2) dysphoria (3) unpeaceful mind. Regarding to depression, there were three issues under this theme: (1) emotional emptiness (2) low mood (3) feeling depression. Regarding to ambivalence, there were three issues under this theme, which are: (1) rising and falling emotionally (2) capricious thoughts (3) uncertainty. Thus, the phenomenon of middle-age cancer patients facing terminal stage presented by the results form this study shown as a phenomenon of resistance.