ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the development, through research, of an instrument is presented that can be used in healthcare practice to assess patients’ experience of the transitory nature of life and its impact on patients’ lives and sense of well-being. The concept of Transitoriness has been developed as part of the theory development of The Omnipresence of Cancer. Transitoriness is a new concept and has been found to include three attributes. They are: awareness of life’s finitude, anxiety and change. Each one of these attributes includes subthemes. Awareness of life’s finitude encompasses the themes threat to life, thoughts of death and leaving the world behind. The attribute anxiety includes the subthemes fear, distress and uncertainty. The attribute change unites the subthemes new, self, relationships and normalization. Together, these attributes permit the description of the experience of Transitoriness. Based on the concept analysis conducted by Shaha et al. (2011), a preliminary Instrument has been developed to support the assessment of the experience of Transitoriness. Item development and face validation are described in this chapter. Recommendations for further development and reliability testing of this preliminary instrument are provided.
