Moving forward in life after being an on-looker in intensive care partner's experience of group-communication

• Background: Partners have a burdensome time during and after their partners’ intensive care period. They may appear to be coping welloutwardly but inside feel vulnerable and lost. Evaluated interventions for partners on this aspect are limited.Aim: The aim of this study was to describe the experience of participating in group communication with other partners of former intensivecare patients.Design: The study has a descriptive intervention-based design where group communication for partners of former, surviving intensive careunit (ICU) patients was evaluated.Methods: A strategic selection was made of adult partners to former adult intensive care patients (n=15), 5 men and 10 women, aged37–89 years. Two group communication sessions lasting 2 h were held at monthly intervals with three to five partners. The partners later wrote,in a notebook, about their feelings of participating in group communications. To deepen the understanding of the impact of the sessions, six ofthe partners were interviewed. Content analysis was used to analyse the notebooks and the interviews.Findings: Three categories were identified: (1) Emotional impact, the partners felt togetherness and experienced worries and gratitude, (2)Confirmation, consciousness through insight and reflection and (3) The meeting design, group constellation and recommendation to participatein group communication.Conclusion: Partners of an intensive care patient are on a journey, constantly trying to adapt to the new situation and find new strategiesto ever-changing circumstances. Group communications contributed to togetherness and confirmation. To share experiences with others is oneway for partners to be able to move forward in life.Relevance to clinical practice: Group communication with other patients’ partners eases the process of going through the burden ofbeing a partner to an intensive care patient. Group communications needs to be further developed and evaluated to obtain consensus andevidence for the best practice.Key words: Communication • Content analysis • Intensive care • Nursing • Partners

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