In the Queue for Bariatric Surgery: A Phenomenology of Waiting

• Author / Creator

  Glenn, Nicole Marie

• Purpose: To explore the lived-experiences of waiting to have bariatric surgery.
  Research Question: What is it to wait for bariatric surgery?
  Methods & Participants: I responded to this question using a human science approach to phenomenology of practice. I conducted multiple, in-depth, phenomenological interviews with seven participants recruited from a publically funded bariatric clinic in Western Canada. Experiential sources (i.e., interview transcriptions, written experiential descriptions) were analyzed guided by the phenomenological reflection, reduction and writing practices.
  Texts (‘Findings’): This inquiry resulted in three manuscripts through which I explored different meaning-aspects of the phenomenon of waiting to have weight loss surgery. The first text, Making Contact: Experiences From the Weight Loss Surgery Clinic, focused on experiences of contact within the pre-bariatric surgical period. I questioned the ethical significance of relational encounters that occurred within the wait drawing on the writings of philosophers Alphonso Lingis and Emmanuel Levinas. The second text, Phenomenological Insights on Mandatory Weight Loss and the Wait to Have Bariatric Surgery, explored experiences of a pre-surgical requirement that weight loss be achieved prior to surgical approval. I questioned the ethical and practical significance of the practice. In the final text, Phenomenological Insights and Metaphor: Building a House As the Wait to Have Bariatric Surgery, I considered the experience of waiting to have bariatric surgery through the metaphor of house building drawing on insights cultivated through philosophical writings on house, home and building to understand the possible meaning of the experience.
  Concluding Comments & Significance: The findings from these three studies share a common thread of considering the experience of waiting within the context of weight loss surgery. Through these texts I explored possible experiential realities from an ethical perspective often pushing the reader to question – what is good versus what is right (for the individual receiving care)? As such, the texts are of particular relevance to clinicians working in bariatric medicine. The studies also address a significant gap in the bariatric surgical literature, as there is little qualitative research in the field and particularly with regards to patient experiences of the pre-surgical period.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Waiting
  • Bariatric surgery
  • Phenomenology
  • Clinical practice
  • Weight
  • Qualitative

• Graduation date

  Spring 2014

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3T08B

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.