The New Normal: A Bourdieusian Examination of Living into Young Adulthood being a Paediatric Heart Transplant Recipient

Improved success of paediatric cardiac transplantation has resulted in increased survival of recipients into young adulthood (19 to 29 years of age). Young adults who received a heart transplant during childhood have experienced multiple life sustaining procedures. As survival and longevity increase, it is clear that transplant recipients experience negative physiological, psychological and social sequelae. With heart transplant offering individuals a chance to extend life into young adulthood, recipients need lifelong care and at age 18 they will transition from paediatric to adult healthcare facilities. The study addressed young adults circumstances of existence and their competing interests within various social environments. This research project applied Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical concepts of habitus, field and capital, to conceptualize and engage with empirical knowledge production about young adults who have received a heart transplant during childhood. Using visual methodology, focused open-ended interviews were conducted with 12 young adults who had a heart transplant during childhood. Bourdieu’s work provided a theoretical framework to investigate transplant recipients’ identities and social repositioning in relation to dominant discourses of organ transplant and shifting relationships with health services providers. This study involved an iterative process to identify recipients’ encounters and new compositions in relation with others, in order to answer the research objective. These findings highlight that young adult transplant recipients struggle with relational dispositions that excludes them from various fields of social engagement; their struggle and exclusion from various fields is symbolic and is embedded in the structure of the dominant social order of the field from where they become excluded; the social order is taken up and embodied, leading young transplant recipients to practices of accommodation and “normalization”. Changes in healthcare practices, attuned to person implications and peer relationships can begin to address young transplant recipients’ contradictory social positions. Such an approach can potentially lead to improvement in ongoing care and services for young adults who require a lifetime of care. At the same time, it will allow nurses to better prepare and counsel young individuals who are preparing for a heart transplant.

Department dc:contributor.department

Nursing Science

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Mauthner, Oliver Erich

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Angus, Jan

• Qualitative Research
• Heart Transplant
• Paediatric
• Bourdieu

Language dc:language.iso

en_ca

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1807/44121

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:utoronto.scholaris.ca:1807/44121