Background
Cardiac surgery places extensive stress on spouses who often are more worried than
the patients themselves. Spouses can experience difficult and demanding situations
when the partner becomes critically ill.
Objectives
To identify, describe, and conceptualize the individual needs of spouses of patients
with complications of heart failure after cardiac surgery.
Methods
Grounded theory using a mix of systematic coding, data analysis, and theoretical sampling
was performed. Spouses, 10 women and 3 men between 39 and 85 years, were interviewed.
Results
During analysis, the core category of confirmation was identified as describing the individual needs of the spouses. The core category
theoretically binds together three underlying subcategories: security, rest for mind and body, and inner strength. Confirmation facilitated acceptance and improvement of mental and physical health
among spouses.
Conclusions
By identifying spouses' needs for security, rest for mind and body, and inner strength,
health care professionals can confirm these needs throughout the caring process, from
the critical care period and throughout rehabilitation at home. Interventions to confirm
spouses' needs are important because they are vital to the patients' recovery.
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 27, 2009
Footnotes
Financial support was obtained from Linköping University, the Vårdal Instititute, the Vårdal Foundation, and the Swedish Research Council.
Identification
Copyright
© 2009 Mosby, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
