Personal health-related resources are essential for women with breast cancer, as these help them to maintain their own health and well-being during different phases of their illness. The purpose of this integrative review was to identify, describe and synthetise what personal health-related resources have already been identified for this patient group. We carried out an integrative review to find papers that focused on personal health-related resources for women with breast cancer aged 18-64 years. The search covered 1 January 2005 to 31 May 2021 and was carried out using the CINAHL, PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science and Cochrane Library databases. It was limited to peer-reviewed scientific papers with abstracts published in English and 23 papers met the inclusion criteria. The data were analysed using content analysis. Personal health-related resources for women with breast cancer consisted of three different, but inherently interconnected, categories of personal strengths, person-centred cancer care and social support from and involvement in their cultural community. Personal health-related resources for women with breast cancer were multifaceted. Women need nursing support to identify and use these resources and future studies are needed to strengthen how they are measured.
Keywords: breast cancer; cancer nursing; integrative review; person-centred care; personal health-related resources.
© 2021 Nordic College of Caring Science.