Grumme, Valarie S.

Introduction: Organ transplant recipients experience a tumultuous range of emotions and
feelings post transplant. Expressing these feelings and seeking support is an important aspect of
the healing journey. The power of story as a healing modality is well documented in the nursing
literature. Social media sites provide one such avenue for healing and support. Purpose: To
address the void in nursing literature regarding how social media sites are used by transplant
recipients for support and healing, and discover if internet postings provide rich qualitative data.
Method: A descriptive qualitative methodology was used for this pilot. The six-step method of
thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) was used to identify and analyze detailed themes and
patterns within the data using NVivo 10 (©QSR) software. Results: Four major themes were
explicated from the data: Sharing Overwhelming Gratitude, Revealing Intimate Connections,
Finding Sanctuary, and Yearning To Be Heard. Discussion: Knowledge generated by this pilot
study contributes to what is known about the emotional and psychological needs of this growing
patient population. Postings to the transplant-related website revealed an openness to share
experiences and a true sense of community where members reached out for and gave support to
each other. Implications for Nursing Research and Practice: Community websites offer a source
of rich qualitative data to support nursing research. Holistic patient support programs that
recognize the physical and emotional aspects of post-transplant living and care are warranted.

An increasing number of individuals are looking for health information,
interacting with health care providers, and participating in health-related online support
groups The virtual landscape of the internet offers the opportunity for individuals to
establish contact and relationships with persons having similar health concerns anywhere,
anytime The phenomenon of health-related social media use generated an interest in why
persons in the transplant journey chose to participate in an online support community,
how they interacted and made use of the online community, and how this knowledge
could assist nursing in improving care for this growing population A six month sample
of internet postings from an international transplant-related social media site was
analyzed using an inductive qualitative content analysis adapted from Graneheim and
Lundman (2003) within the theoretical lens of Unitary Caring Science (Smith, 1999) The
study provided a unique perspective of how members used the social media support group The synthesis of four pandimensional interconnected patterns, expressing
emotions, sharing experiences, exchanging information, and offering reciprocal support
lead to a theme of being known and understood Healing transcendence emerged as a
unitary transformative metatheme that reflected the holistic nature of the member
interaction in the online support experience