Needing to be normal: the lived experience of chronically ill nursing students

Since the aim of this study was to understand human experience, phenomenology was used to research the lived experience of chronically ill baccalaureate nursing students. Purposive sampling yielded ten participants with at least one diagnosed chronic illness. Interviews were tape-recorded and verbatim transcriptions were analyzed through the seven-step Colaizzi (1978) method. Four major themes emerged: (1) needing to be normal, (2) dealing with the behaviors of others, (3) enduring the restrictions of illness, and (4) learning from self to care for others. This study supported previous findings about the disruption of illness and the methods used by the chronically ill to cope with disease-related symptoms. It also showed that chronic illness creates an inner strength and an intuitive knowledge about the body that provides meaning and direction in the lives of the chronically ill and yields a deeper understanding about the needs of others.