To Restore the Stability: Family Experiences of Patients in Intensive Care Unit

Experience of hospitalization in the intensive care unit is stressful for patients and families. When a family member is hospitalized in intensive care unit, patient's condition causes instability and imbalance in quality of family life. Accordingly, this study aimed to explore experiences of families of hospitalized patients in intensive care unit related to resture the stability.
In this qualitative study, 19 family members of patients in intensive care unit were enrolled via purposive sampling method. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, observation, and field notes. All interviews were recorded and transcript verbatim, and were analyzed using qualitative content analysis method.
The extracted three main themes wereas “search for supporter resources”, “organizing of situation”, and “contextual-tructural factors”. Subcategories of “searching for supporter resources” were “sources of hope” and “sources of support”. “Organizing of situation” had two subcategories of “interaction with the health care team” and “efforts of stress relief”. Moreover, “contextua-structural factors” included two subcategories of “factors related to family” and “factors related to care-medical system”.
According to the results of this study, it seems essential that health care team understand experiences of family members of patients in intensive care unit related to restore family stability, and balance in their life for providing family-centered interventions.