Aims and objectives: The aim of this study was to describe caregivers' conceptions of patient participation in an emergency care unit.
Background: Patient participation is an important goal in health care. Patients who are given the opportunity to participate in care situations are able to influence care in a way that is more beneficial to them. Patients' participation in caring has been studied in different contexts, but little health care research has been conducted into patient participation in the emergency care unit. Patients treated in emergency care units sometimes express dissatisfaction with their care situation and it would therefore be important to find out how caregivers in emergency care experience patient participation.
Design: A phenomenographic research method based on life world theory was used in the study.
Method: Data were collected from 11 caregivers with experience of working in an emergency department. The caregivers were from different professions: three physicians, four nurses and four auxiliary nurses.
Results: The caregivers' conceptions of patient participation can be divided into three different descriptive categories: caregivers offer the opportunity for participation, patients demand participation and mutual participation.
Conclusions: The study adds knowledge that caregivers' different qualitative conceptions of patient participation are mainly conditional from caregivers.
Relevance to clinical practice: Mutual participation is perceived occasionally and often unexpectedly, when the right circumstances occur, despite international and national guidelines that lay down the need for patient participation.