Being a patient in the intensive care unit: a narrative approach to understanding patients’ experiences of being awake and on mechanical ventilation

ABSTRACT

Purpose

Intensive care patients often struggle to communicate due to the technical equipment used for mechanical ventilation and their critical illness. The aim of the study was to achieve a deeper understanding of how mechanically ventilated intensive care patients construct meaning in the unpredictable trajectory of critical illness.

Methods

The study was a part of a larger study in which ten patients were video recorded while being in the intensive care. Five patients engaged in interviews about their experiences from the intensive care stay after being discharged and were offered the possibility to see themselves in the video recordings. A narrative, thematic analysis was applied to categorize the patients’ experiences from the intensive care.

Results

A pattern of shared experiences among intensive care patients were identified. Three main themes capture the patient’s experiences: 1) perceiving the intensive care stay as a life-changing turning point, 2) being dependent on and cared for by others, and 3) living with negative and positive ICU experiences.

Conclusion

The patients’ narratives revealed how being critically ill affected them, and how they understood their experiences in relation to themselves and their surroundings. The results can be used to pose important questions about our current clinical practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Intensive care patient
• narratives
• narrative method
• patient experiences
• qualitative research

Acknowledgments

Professor Emerita Arnstein Finset has been part of the larger study and participated in the development of the methodological approach and interview guide.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/17482631.2024.2322174

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by Lovisenberg Diaconal University College in Norway.

Notes on contributors

Marte-Marie Wallander Karlsen

Marte-Marie Wallander Karlsen is a critical care nurse, Associate Professor and Program Director for master studies at Lovisenberg Diaconal University College, Norway. Her PhD focused on communication with mechanically ventilated patients in the intensive care unit, where she video-recorded interactions between patients and providers. Dr Karlsen’s research field also focuses on how to advance nurses communication skills, using standardized patients in simulation-based settings as well as how unexperienced registered nurses experience the transition into working in intensive care units.

Lena Günterberg Heyn

HeynLena Günterberg Heyn is a Professor at the University of South-Eastern Norway, where she is leader for Center for Health and Technology and Research leader Strategic Initiative USN Health and welfare services of the future. Her research field involves communication in different settings, such as cancer care and intensive care, in addition to communication with technology. She also teaches and research communication skills training, and feedback in simulation (including virtual simulation). Heyn is an Associated Editor for PEC Innovation and has edited a book on communication in Norwegian.

Kristin Heggdal

Kristin Heggdal is a professor in Nursing at the Faculty of Health at VID Specialized University in Oslo, Norway. Dr. Heggdal has extensive experience in teaching and supervision students at the bachelor, master, and PhD level of nursing and health sciences. Her main research interests are directed towards patients` and families` resources for health while facing chronic illness. She has a strong interest in developing and testing of generic interventions that can be used across diagnostic categories and clinical settings to strengthen health within illness.