Mechanical ventilation in the intensive care unit requires the use of medication to reduce pain, discomfort, anxiety, and agitation. An explicit recall refers to the phenomenon where the person remembers the perceptions that occurred under sedation during mechanical ventilation. Severe psychological consequences may occur as a result of an explicit recall. This phenomenon is not well-defined and there is no common language in the literature. A conceptual analysis was carried out using Rodgers’ evolutionary method in order to clarify the concept of explicit recall. A total of sixty-eight articles were analyzed interdisciplinarily. The results indicate that an explicit recall occurs following treatment, requiring anesthesia or sedation, and the response to medication varies according to individual characteristics. The explicit recall is defined as perceptive, interpretative, subjective, dynamic, and temporal. Following an explicit recall, the psychological trajectory has various psychological consequences that can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder.