"Intensive care unit survivorship" - a constructivist grounded theory of surviving critical illness

Abstract

Aims and objectives

To theorise intensive care unit survivorship after a critical illness based on longitudinal qualitative data.

Background

Increasingly, patients survive episodes of critical illness. However, the short- and long-term impact of critical illness includes physical, psychological, social and economic challenges long after hospital discharge. An appreciation is emerging that care needs to extend beyond critical illness to enable patients to reclaim their lives postdischarge with the term 'survivorship' being increasingly used in this context. What constitutes critical illness survivorship has, to date, not been theoretically explored.