Background
Family involvement affects the whole family´s well-being in relation to major surgery. There are reasons to explore if the involvement of family has changed with new technical solutions for communication and altered visitation policies in the aftermath of the Covid 19 pandemic.
Aim
To explore experiences and actions of family involvement narrated by Swedish patients who have undergone elective open-heart surgery
Methods
The critical incident technique was used, a qualitative research method suitable for describing crucial aspects of clinical problems. Important situations of family involvement were collected in 2023 through interviews with 35 patients who had undergone open-heart surgery in Sweden. The important situations were analyzed by separating the patients’ experiences of the situations from the actions of patients, family members and healthcare professionals.
Results
The analysis resulted in 87 important situations of family involvement in relation to open-heart surgery described by patients. By separating experiences and actions it became evident that, in addition to the patients themselves, family members and healthcare professionals were actors when the patients were describing important situations of family involvement. Positive and negative experiences were at times described as shared by their family members, and actions of family involvement led to improved recovery and burdening communications for the patients.
Conclusion
The separating of experiences and actions of patients’ descriptions was challenging and beneficial for the understanding of the patients’ perspective on clinical consequences of family involvement. While preserving health beneficial aspects of family involvement, social support interventions should be considered to support families in relation to open-heart surgery.