The experience of hospitalization an phenomenological approach

Abstract

The phenomenon of hospitalization is the subject of this study, in which I undertake the identification of the significance of living in a hospital for the interned persons. In order to understand such experiences, I opted for a qualitative research, in a phenomenological approach, and, according to a modality of this phenomenon, I have analysed the discourse of accident victims interned for over a month in clinical-surgical units of a general hospital. Hospitalization is revealed to be an unchosen situation, difficult to experience, which makes one to live the facticity of a diseased body which has to be treated, sometimes, by invasive procedures. The hospital is described as a space in which coexistence and communication are imbued with new meanings and as a new world devoid of previous, accustomed experiences.