The care experience for people undergoing a liver transplantation. Descriptive phenomenological investigation in a Belgian academic hospital

This study aims to describe and understand the care experience for people having undergone a liver transplantation in a Belgian academic hospital and the elements of an ideal care experience for them.
The descriptive phenomenological method of the “Relational Caring Inquiry” was used with twelve participants whose stories were collected through three semi-structured individual interviews. These interviews gave an overall picture of their care experience, summarized as “the feeling of having benefited from the support of both the body and mind in a Humanist-Caring dynamic, but with difficulties linked to organizational and environmental factors in finding a new balance.” The essence of their ideal care experience consists of “benefiting from the support of both the body and mind by competent professionals, in a Humanist-Caring climate and a dynamic of partnership with the patient, in an institution that is welcoming in terms of its organization and environment.” Based on these results, it seems essential to limit organizational constraints to consolidate the Humanist-Caring dynamic, to develop the patient partnership, and to pay special attention to the patient’s relatives, resulting in structured support.