乳癌婦女除了要接受疾病帶來的生理痛苦，尚需承受身體心像改變、面臨死亡等心理壓力，而「希望」往往是支持她們活下去的主要力量之一。本研究透過結構式問卷，目的在探查乳癌婦女之希望狀態及其與人口學特性、疾病特性、不確定感、社會支持的相關性。研究工具包括1.希望狀態量表:主要是由Nowotny( 1989 )所發展，內含信心、未來可能性、心靈信念、主動參與、與他人有關的與生活有意義。2.不確定感量表。3.社會支持量表。4.個人基本資料表。研究採立意取樣，對象包括60位乳房手術切除後3-10天及60位化學治療中的乳癌婦女，將所收集到的資料以次數分配、百分比、無母數單因子變異數分析、史皮爾曼等級相關等統計方式進行資料處理。研究結果發現乳癌婦女之希望狀態: 1.以「生活有意義」平均得分最高，「信心」得分最低。2.與不確定感、化學治療次數、病程長短呈負相關。3.與教育程度、社會支持呈正相關。4.因著婚姻狀態、宗教信仰類別、宗教參與程度、癌症期數之不同而呈顯著差異。5.化學治療組低於手術包。本研究結果提供了臨床護理人員在提昇乳癌婦女希望時，一個有效之評價與指引。

Women with breast cancer not only experience distress from physical upset but also have psycho-logical stress from body image and impending death. Under the circumstances, hope is the main strength for the women with breast cancer to live on. The purposes of this study were: (1) to explore the level of hope of women with breast cancer during post-operative period and chemotherapy, and (2) to find correlated factors such as demographics, uncertainty and social support. Instruments included : (1) Nowotny Hope scale with six dimensions: confidence, possibility of future, active participation, relation to others, spiritual belief and meaningful life, (2) Mishel's Uncertainty in Illness Scale,(3) so-cial support scale and (4) demographic data. The subjects were composed of 60 patients who were 3-10 days post mastectomy and 6 0 patients who were undergoing chemotherapy. The study results showed: (1) the mean score of hope was 95.6, of hope's component part, meaningful life had the highest average 4.05, while confidence reflected the lowest average 2.93; (2) There were significant negative relationships between level of hope and level of uncertainty, level of hope and chemotherapy frequency, level of hope and illness duration ( p<0.01) ; (3) There were significant postive relation-ships between level of hope and level of education, level of hope and social support; (4) The differences of marital status, religious beliefs religious participation and stage of cancer were significant with the lev-el of hope ( p<0.05) ; and (5) Average score of hope of women undergoing chemotherapy was sig-nificantly lower than that of women 3-10 days post-mastectomy.