Summary
Aims: To critically review the literature in order to describe the themes associated with th
experience of critical illness and consider how these inform the patients understanding.
Background: Critical illness requires life-saving intervention and application of high technol ogy
medicine and intensive nursing within a specialist critical care unit. Whilst an extensiv and
rapidly advancing knowledge of the physiological basis for treating critical illness exists
understanding how critical illness is experienced by the patient is less well understood.
Data sources: Literature was retrieved through systematic searching of electronic databases hand
searches of journals and incremental searching.
Review methods: 26 qualitative studies of firsthand experiences of adult patients who had bee in a
critical care unit were reviewed. Key, common, explicit themes between the studies wer identified as
well as implicit themes that emerged through preliminary synthesis.
Results: Eight common explicit themes were identified. These included: Transformations of per
ception: Unreal experiences and dreams; Proximity to death; Transformation and perceptio of the
body in illness; Transformation and perception of time; The critical care environment technology
and dependence; Care, communication and relationships with healthcare profes sionals; The support
of family and friends and desire for contact; Transfer from critical car and recovery from critical
illness. A further two implicit themes related to the primacy of th critical care unit within the
studies; and the focus of recall or personal meaning which divide the literature.
Conclusion: The explicit themes highlight the steps taken by researchers to understand what i
salient about the critical care experience for those who have been critically ill. Future researc
exploring the whole illness-recovery trajectory and the way personal meaning contributes t
understanding life experiences is justified.
© 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.