The Lived Experiences of Inpatients'Families in the Intensive Care Units

Hwang, Hye Nam; Kim, Kwuy Bun

Abstract

The study was done by applying a phenomenological study, which is qualitative research methods, in order to understand the meaning of the lived experiences, to confirm and describe the meaning structure, and to prepare nursing interventive strategies centering around the meanings of the inpatients' families in the intensive care units. In the study, the family members were the main important nursing providers for in the inpatients' who were admitted in the neuro-surgical intensive care unit in K-university hospital and who agreed to participate in the study after being given on explanation about the purpose of the study. The data were collected from the seven participants who had feelings of trust and intimacy favorable toward the researcher as they were families of patients who had been cared for by the researcher in the ICU where the researcher has been assigned. The data were collected from April to October, 1999. The participants described their experiences as candidly as possible. The researcher described closely the lived experiences with their own words and the observations of the researcher. A tape recorder was used with the consent of the participants to prevent nursing information and communication. The analysis of the data was made through the phenomenological analytic method suggested by Giorgi; as an unit of description, which include the participants'expressions and the researcher's observations, the analysis was used based on the data described from the expressions of the participants and the details of observations of the researcher. The conclusions of the study were as follows: The meanings of the lived experience of the inpatients'families in the ICU was confirmed by indepth interviews and observations including these of the participatants: 1. Psychological impact: confusion, impatience, surprise, insensibility; 2. Physical suffering: fatigue, discomfort, indigestion; 3. Psychological suffering: heartbreaking emotion, anxiety, annoyance, fear, compassion, grief; 4. Economical suffering: economical difficulties; 5. Psychological disagreement: escape from reality, personnel avoidance, grudge, powerlessness, carefulness, transposition of life-tract, abandonment, role-crisis, hope, lack of understanding, regret, feeling of ambivalence(progressive process, medical personnel interest); 6. Psychological dependency; self-reliance groupsupport, family support, religious support; 7. Psychological acceptance; acquaintance, gratitude, reassurance; The study will offer better understanding of experiences therefore, based on the experiences confirmed by the study, it may facilitate more appropriate nursing interventive strategies for health maintenance and to prevent occurrence of possible problems with the inpatients'families in the ICUs.