The Meaning of Intensive Care Unit Experience as Perceived by the Nurses, Patients, and Family Members

Cypress, Brigitte

Friday, July 15, 2011: 9:10 AM

Brigitte Cypress, EdD, RN, CCRN
Department of Nursing, Lehman College City University of New York, Bronx, NY

Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to identify the findings as to themes of the phenomenological study.

Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to identify the implications and recommendations of the research to nursing practice, education, administration, research and institutional/organizational policy.

Background: Family-centered care is important for people of all ages because of the role that a family plays in establishing and maintaining health. Meeting the needs of family members helps reduce anxiety, build family confidence in the healthcare system, and ultimately improves health outcomes. On an institutional level, understanding patients’ and families’ experiences can provide a foundation for improving nursing services.

Purpose: The goal of this qualitative phenomenological study was to understand and illuminate the meaning of the intensive care unit experiences of the patients, family members and nurses during critical illness in the intensive care unit and to document a research agenda to improve patients’ outcomes and influence policy of family presence in the intensive care unit.

Methods: Using Van Manen’s phenomenological method, this study was able to elucidate the experiential descriptions, essential relationships, and meaning structures of the intensive care unit experiences of the fifteen participants during critical illness.

Results: Data analysis revealed five integrating common themes and three specific themes. The five common themes were: family as a unit, physical care and comfort, physiological care, psychosocial support, and transformation. The three specific themes were: advocacy, uncertainty, and confidence in the nurse and healthcare team.

Conclusions and Recommendations: It is my belief that the nursing knowledge learned from this study, used cautiously, provides insight into how these experiences can influence nursing practice, education, and future research. This study affirms the mutual influence among the family, patient and nurse during a critical illness experience. The findings of this study support the tenets of family-centered care, which mandates the purposeful inclusion of the family in all aspects of care. The recommendations for nursing, administrative and institutional policy includes flexible and open visitation, family presence during emergency and invasive procedures, including family members in interdisciplinary rounds and discharge planning.

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