Several patients who, according to the department nurse, were candidates for the study died after discharge from the intensive care unit. Thus, the criteria for discharge were changed to between 3 and 12 months. Participants had been used to managing on their own before the admission to hospital. During the stay at the intensive care unit they needed comprehensive help “for everything.” In time things developed, especially for participant 2, who said that she was able to eat by herself during the last course of the admission. Participants have had difficulties this website recalling the time at the intensive care unit and to

make coherent narratives. Participant 3 had difficulty distinguishing dreams from reality and episodes from the bed ward and the intensive care unit. It was BMN 673 possible to exclude parts of the interview due to knowledge of the special characteristics of the intensive care unit. It did not have any immediate consequence for the number of recollections when participants were interviewed; this is in line with research in the area (Löf, Berggren, & Ahlström, 2006). Materiel

and data analysis The interview guide contained the themes dependency in relation to understanding of self, dependency in relation to time, bodily experiences linked to dependency, and experiences in relation to the nurse. Questions linked to the themes were, for example: Tell me about what it meant for you to be dependent on others help (thoughts, feelings), Did your perceived experience changed during the stay at the ICU?, How did you feel your body? Tell me about an important situation related to the collaboration with a nurse. Themes and questions were based on the literature review. An analysis of the concept “care dependency” (Boggatz, Dijkstra, Lohrmann, & Dassen, 2007) inspired the questions as they recommend Electron transport chain that the empirical studies should include questions about the patients’ functional

limitations. The guide functioned as an indicator. Above all, it was the patients’ narratives and experiences that were followed. The interviews lasted between 45 and 60 min and were recorded on an audio file and transcribed verbatim and decontextualized to a text. The findings appeared through analysis and interpretation of the text, which was carried out on three levels: a naive reading, a structural analysis, and an interpreted whole which can increase, change, or broaden the understanding. This means that it is a continuous process from what is said to what is talked about to which the meaning of what is said can refer. In the naive reading, the text was read several times to grasp its meaning as a whole (Lindseth & Norberg, 2004). This demanded a phenomenological approach where the researcher is open to what the text says and become influenced and moved by it.