The intensive care unit: experiences of patients, families, and their nurses.

Past studies have examined how nurses can meet the needs of the critically ill patients and their families and the effects of their relatives' critical illness on the families themselves. However, there is a paucity of research studies in the literature conducted on the triad of nurses, patients, and family members looking at the experience of critical illness and their perspective of each from the other. This qualitative phenomenological study was able to elucidate the experiential descriptions, essential relationships, and meaning of structures of the intensive care unit experiences of the 15 participants during critical illness, and strategies to improve nursing practice, research, and education are presented.