The Patient Persona of the Self-Management Experience of Home-Based Rehabilitation for Spinal Cord Injury Patients: A Qualitative Study.

PURPOSE: To understand the real experience of self-management in home-based rehabilitation for spinal cord injury patients, and to investigate population differences and characteristics in self-management experiences and create tailored patient personas.

PATIENTS AND

METHODS

A descriptive qualitative study was designed, and purposive sampling was utilized to choose 17 spinal cord injury patients for semi-structured interviews, guided by the concept of precision nursing. Colaizzi's seven-step analytical approach was applied to review the data. The label system for the self-management experience of home-based rehabilitation for spinal cord injury patients was refined and summarized, and then the patient persona was constructed. Figures and tables were combined to visualize patient personas.

RESULTS

The patient persona labels for spinal cord injury patients' self-management of home-based rehabilitation were distilled into six dimensions: basic characteristics, cognitive characteristics, behavioral characteristics, psychological characteristics, social support, and medical resource status. Three categories of patient personas were created: patients who are autonomy-driven, patients who are passively dependent, and patients who are suffering and conflicted.

CONCLUSION

Patients with spinal cord injuries have a variety of home-based self-management experiences. To improve disease prognosis and patients' capacity for self-management during home rehabilitation, healthcare professionals must thoroughly evaluate patients' attribute features and create tailored intervention programs.