Existential uncertainty in the patient cancer experience: Delimiting the concept.

Objective: To delimit the concept of existential uncertainty in the patient cancer experience from other, related aspects of uncertainty in the context of an existing framework of health-related uncertainty.

Methods: In-depth interviews were carried out with six people living with cancer and analyzed using theory-driven, concept-focused thematic analysis.

Results: Our analysis suggests that existential uncertainty is concerned with meaning rather than information; with the person rather than the disease; and with the fundamental nature of our human being-in-the-world rather than the more practical aspects of our relationships with others.

Existential uncertainty in health care: A concept analysis.

Rationale, Aims And Objectives: According to an influential taxonomy of varieties of uncertainty in health care, existential uncertainty is a key aspect of uncertainty for patients. Although the term "existential uncertainty" appears across a number of disciplines in the research literature, its use is diffuse and inconsistent. To date there has not been a systematic attempt to define it.