Patients' lived body experiences in the intensive care unit and beyond - a meta-ethnographic synthesis

Physical therapists supporting patients in intensive care unit (ICU) rehabilitation can improve their clinical practice with insight in patients' lived body experiences.

To gain insight in patients' lived body experiences during ICU stay and in recovery from critical illness.

Through a comprehensive systematic literature search, 45 empirical phenomenological studies were identified. Patients' lived body experiences were extracted from these studies and synthesized following the seven-phase interpretative approach as described by Noblit and Hare.

Three lines of argument were illuminated: 1) "recovery from critical illness starts from a situation in which patients experience the lived body as unable;" 2) "patients experience progress in recovery from critical illness when the lived body is empowered;" and 3) "recovery from critical illness results in a lived body changed for life." Eleven third-order constructs were formulated as different kinds of bodies: 1) "an intolerable body;" 2) "an alienated body;" 3) "a powerless body;" 4) "a dependent body;" 5) "a restricted body;" 6) "a muted body;" 7) "a touched body;" 8) "a transforming body;" 9) "a re-discovering body;" 10) "an unhomelike body;" and 11) "a remembering body."

Patients' lived body experiences during ICU stay and in recovery from critical illness have richly been described in phenomenological studies and were synthesized in this meta-ethnography.