City Research Online

Abstract

This article reports on women’s experiences of career change following a breast cancer diagnosis and explores whether their illness represents the driving force to pursue previously unfulfilled career ambitions. The participants were four women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer and had changed career direction after their treatment. Data were conducted through in-depth interview and were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Four themes prominent throughout each women’s narrative were identified: (i) a pre-diagnosis, unhappiness at work, (ii) a sense of stepping off the treadmill, (iii) a sharp focus upon their ‘self’ and subsequently (iv) a flourishing ‘work-life’. Further research is needed to investigate how common these findings are amongst women with breast cancer.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This article is to be published in a revised form in The Australian Journal of Rehabilitation Counselling, http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=JRC. This version is published under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND. No commercial re-distribution or re-use allowed. Derivative works cannot be distributed. © the authors. https://doi.org/10.1017/jrc.2020.13
Publisher Keywords:	breast cancer, IPA, career change, career construction theory, post-traumatic, career growth
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
Departments:	School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Psychology
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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