The experience of being a couple during an intensive care unit admission

Background In critical care nursing, a trend has been seen towards growing attention to the family experience of critical illness. Despite trends moving towards care of the family as a unit, previous research has focused on individual family members' experience of critical illness. Exploring the life world of the family, especially that of spouses and their interaction, is essential to providing family-centred critical care and has not previously been described. Aim To explore the lived experience of being a couple during admission to an intensive care unit. Design Data were collected through dyadic semi-structured interviews with four couples who had experienced admission to an intensive care unit. Interviews were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. Method Grounded in the phenomenological-hermeneutic tradition, data were analysed using Ricoeur's theory of interpretation, using a method described by Dreyer and Pedersen. Results By way of analysis, the life world of being a couple during admission to an intensive care unit was disclosed and divided into themes: For better and for worse; The meaningful proximity; and Being a couple. Conclusion Although critical illness brings a sudden disruption of a couple's twosomeness, the need to remain, act as and be seen and cared for as a couple persists during admission to an intensive care unit. Therefore, couples need to be cared for as individuals and as a unit, underlining the need to follow trends towards family-centred critical care.