[Hospitalization in an intensive care unit: how patients perceive it]

This qualitative study aims to understand how adult patients experience hospitalization in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU), thus contributing to the improvement of care and a better adaptation to such a stigmatized environment. The data were collected in an ICU of a hospital in the southwest of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Ten patients were interviewed. Three themes related to the previous perception of the ICU were identified: difference to the assistance in inpatient units; technology and expert assistance; environmental and behavioral changes in the ICU. In the beginning, informants related the ICU to the terminally ill, but they began to view the unit as a place for treatment and recovery, thereby acquiring a positive view of its environment.