The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of people with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) in Korea. The specific aim was to identify major problems that people with CHB face and strategies that they are dealing with.

A grounded theory method was utilized. The data were collected by individual in-depth interviews from 12 CHB patients from one of the major hospitals in Korea.

After constant comparative analysis, a core category emerged as “illness management with self-reliance and will.” Seven major strategies that were identified in dealing with the illness were maintaining receptive and positive attitudes; restraining excessive work and greed; searching for information; controlling illness information; adhering to practices for not spreading the viral disease; abstaining from alcohol and smoking and maintaining healthy eating habits; nd using alternative therapies. The outcomes that result from employing these strategies were identified as burden, depression and helplessness, stress for maintaining compliance, and dispirited interpersonal relationships.

The results of this study suggest that most people with CHB in Korea have problems in psychosocial area. Thus health professionals need to provide not only informational support but also emotional one to improve quality of life of the people with CHB.

The purpose of this study was to describe the lived experience of patients with heart transplantation in Korea.

Individual indepth interviews and a focus group interview were used to collect the data from nine patients who had heart transplantations in 2015. All interviews were audio-taped and verbatim transcripts were made for the analysis. Data were analyzed using Colaizzi's phenomenological method.

Among the nine participants, eight were men. Mean age was 57.30 years. Six theme clusters emerged from the analysis. ‘Joy of rebirth obtained by good luck’ describes the pleasure and expectation of new life after narrow survival. ‘Suffering from adverse drug effects’ illustrates various psychosocial difficulties, such as low self-esteem, helplessness, alienation, and burnout, arising from the side effects of medications. ‘Body and mind of being bewildered’ illustrates disintegrated health and haunting fear of death. ‘Alienation disconnected with society’ describes isolated feeling of existence due to misunderstandings from society. ‘Suffering overcome with gratitude and responsibility’ includes overcoming experience through various social supports and suitable jobs. Finally, ‘acceptance of suffering accompanied with new heart’ illustrate changed perspective of life itself.

The findings in this study provide deep understanding and insights of the lived experience of heart related illness for these patients and should help in the development of tailored-interventions for patients with heart transplantation.

The purpose of this study was to describe and explore the experience process of life of patients with Crohn's disease.

Using a grounded theory methodology, 24 interviews were performed with 7 men and 5 women, 17-47 years of age, suffering from Crohn's disease.

'Tuning of two conflicting lives' was identified as the core category, and 5 subcategories were identified and they were integrated into the core category. The identified outcomes were 'Living a withdrawn life', 'coping flexibly', 'drifting with tangled emotions' and 'maintaining long-term remission'.

When caring for these patients, it is important to identify needs, allow patients to express what they want at that moment and support them in maintaining a daily life that can be perceived as normal.