THE DECISION MAKING PROCESS ABOUT TREATMENT FOR INDIGENOUS WOMEN WITH BREAST CANCER FROM THE CANADIAN PRAIRIES

Abstract

This qualitative study focuses on the decision-making process that Indigenous women undergo when receiving breast cancer treatment. The main research question is: how do Indigenous women with breast cancer make decisions around cancer treatment? One-on-one, open-ended interviews were completed with 12 Indigenous women from the Saskatchewan region. A lens of two-eyed seeing was applied, which means that participants were expected to view their life from a traditional or western perspective, or a combination of the two. Four main themes were identified: socioeconomic status, accessibility, culture, cultural safety, and led to women-informed recommendations. Socioeconomic status had three main subthemes of everyday responsibilities, poverty, and medical accessories. Accessibility included three subthemes of knowledge, location, and travel. Culture consisted of two main themes of diversity and stigmas around the disease, with diversity including traditional, western, and two-eyed seeing and stigmas around the disease being mostly related to silence around cancer. Cultural safety included influences from the Indian Residential Schools, feeling like a stranger in the healthcare setting, communication, time, connecting, and self-efficacy. Women-informed recommendations are based on suggestions the women gave regarding aspects related to their treatment choices that they would have liked to have been done differently. The findings from this study will be used in the future for knowledge dissemination, transference, and application.