Nursing Science Quarterly 23(1) 63 –71 © The Author(s) 2010

With more than an estimated 2.5 million breast cancer sur-vivors in the United States alone, it is essential to learn more about survivors ’ quality of life (National Cancer Institute, 2005). Survivorship stages were originally described by Mullan (1985), with the extended or intermediate stage of survivorship described as covering a period from the com-pletion of treatment to 5 years or less since diagnosis (Grant, Padilla, & Greimel, 1996; Mullan, 1985). Throughout the survivorship trajectory, issues related to well-being and quality of life persist (Grant et al.). Even with profound problems, some women with breast cancer have had posi-tive experiences and expressed a sense of increasing com-plexity, growth, and change, which may enhance thei