BELTRAN SALAZAR, Óscar Alberto. The Intensive Care Unit, a place to be alone. []. , 27, 1, pp.34-45. ISSN 0120-5307.

Objective: to describe the patients meaning of the experience of being hospitalized in an ICU. Methodology: research study with phenomenological focus of nine mature people between 24 and 80 years of age who were critically sick and hospitalized in an ICU. The in- depth interview and non participant observation were the techniques for gathering information. The data were analyzed according to the outline proposed by Cohen, Kahan and Steeves. The study was carried out in Medellín, Colombia from April to October, 2006. Results and discussion: the ICU is a place for loneliness, cold, special odor and silence where words were "absent", "incomprehensible", "not for hearing", "not pronounced" and "agreeable". The communication was not always adequate and the company was offered by other sick people; besides, patient played a secondary role in front of technology and was necessary to be "good patient". Conclusions: the hospitalization meant to be alone, isolated of the family, surrounded by other patients and the team of health members whose company sometimes was not enough. Staying in an ICU adds to the suffering during a serious illness

: intensive care units; health facility environment; loneliness; refusal to treatment; phenomenology.

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