Journal Article

Making sense of it: Intensive care patients' phenomenological accounts of story construction

Abstract

Background Patients entering intensive care encounter physical and psychological stress which may lead to psychological morbidity such as depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress. It has been suggested that constructing a story may assist psychological recovery however this has been minimally investigated in the intensive care patient. Aim The aim of this paper is to examine the process of story construction in patients’ phenomenological accounts of being a patient in the technological environment of intensive care. Study design The study design was informed by Heideggerian phenomenology. Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted in nineteen patients who had been in intensive care for at least four days. Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed and analysed utilising Van Manen’s framework for thematic analysis. Findings Making sense of their experiences in ICU appeared to be fundamental to story construction. Themes that arose were: “Why am I here?”, “Filling in the gaps”, “Sorting the real from the unreal” and “Searching for familiarity”. These themes describe how participants sought temporal and causal coherence in order to construct their integrated and understandable story. Families appeared to play a critical role in assisting participants in filling in the gaps, sorting the real from the unreal and their subsequent psychological recovery. Conclusions and relevance to clinical practice The importance of early support from health care professionals to facilitate patients’ story construction is highlighted. The study also emphasizes the role of families in supporting patients in making sense of their experiences and the associated psychological recovery process. Further research to evaluate methods of facilitating story construction such as nurse-led de-briefing, patient diaries, is recommended. In addition investigation of families’ perceptions of their role in assisting patients to construct their story may facilitate health care professionals in developing strategies to effectively support families in their role.

Attached files

Authors

Stayt, L
Seers, K
Tutton, E

Oxford Brookes departments

Faculty of Health and Life Sciences\Department of Nursing

Dates

Year of publication: 2015
Date of RADAR deposit: 2016-11-10

---

---

Related resources

This RADAR resource is the Accepted Manuscript of Making sense of it: Intensive care patients' phenomenological accounts of story construction