1MSc Student, Student Research Committee, Department of Nursing, School of Nursing
2Assistant Professor, Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery, Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, Iran
*Corresponding author: Abdolghani Abdollahimohammad, PhD in Nursing, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery, Zabol University of Medical Science, Zabol, Iran.
Online published on 4 January, 2017.
The intubated patients have valuable lived experiences on hospitalization in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Understanding the lived experiences of ICU's patients help the caregivers for better care planning and implementing. Thus, this study aimed to phenomenologically explore the intubated patients’ lived experiences of ICU care.
This descriptive phenomenological study conducted through a semi-structured interview with 12 intubated patients in ICU. The participants were selected using purposive sampling method from November 2015 to July 2016. Colaizzi's method was used for data analysis.
A total of 4 themes and 13 sub-themes were obtained. The main extracted themes included mental health problems associated with the lack of communication, family as a for the patients, intubation as an evocation of imprisonment, torture and death, and starting a new life with extubation.
The intubated patients experience many challenges during the hospitalization in ICU. As intubated patients are unable to communicate verbally neglect of their needs are not impossible. The medical staff's should thus pay more attention to the patients. The presence of family members and allowing them to visit and participate regularly in their patient care should be a must.
Intensive care unit (ICU), intubated patient, descriptive phenomenology, lived experiences
