Adaptive Coping Strategies in Patients with Spinal Cord Injury: A Phenomenological Study

Objectives: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is one of the leading cause of disability worlwide. Coping strategies play important role in adjustment of these patients. This phenomenoligical study was comducted to explore the coping strategies in patients with spinal cord injury. Methods: This study was guided by hermeneutic phenomenology and was performed using van Manen’s method. Using purposeful sampling method, 15 adult participants (4 female, 11 male) from Ardail City and living with spinal cord injury were recruited into this study. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Interviews were recorede as audio files and immediately transcribed to text files and the analized by the thematic analysis introoduced by van Manen. Results: The lived experiences of the participants about their coping strategies were condensed into six main themes include ‘understanding of incurability’, ‘desire for being independent’, ‘ask for divine help’, ‘patience and convince’, ‘time as coping agent’, ‘forming family’. Conclusion: According to the findings we can conclude that patients with SCI try to cope with loss using their own individual coping strategies. Therefore, it is necessary for clinicians particularly psychiatrists to reinforce the patients’ coping strategies in confrounting with spinal cord injury.