Dark-Recovery Experiences, Coping Strategies, and Needs of Adult Heart Transplant Recipients in Taiwan

Cardiovascular Surgery Patients: Intensive Care Experiences and Associated Factors

“…Different from our results, cardiovascular surgery patients reported that they were not familiar with the medical environment and politics after their release from the ICU. Furthermore, they experienced mental and physical uneasiness because of the examinations in the ICU and their changeable health status [7]. Patients partly remembered intensive care experiences.…”

“…Removing barriers to healing and increasing a patient's feeling of safety are necessary to support patient recovery [1]. Cardiac transplant patients did not recognize their ICU environment [7]. Patients stated that they felt environmental distress while in the ICU [13].…”

The Difficulties and Needs of Organ Transplant Recipients during Postoperative Care at Home: A Systematic Review

“…Most participants were kidney transplant recipients [7,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26], followed by heart transplant recipients [5,[27][28][29], liver transplant recipients [30,31], and lung transplant recipients [32]. Three studies were not limited to specific organ transplant recipients [33][34][35].…”

“…One study focused on adolescents and pediatric recipients [18]. Eight studies assessed the psychological adjustment of organ transplant recipients [7,16,18,20,21,30,31,34], eight studies assessed both the quality of life and other aspects of transplant recipients' experiences [22][23][24]26,28,29,33,35], two studies assessed the sleep quality of transplant recipients [15,25], and six studies assessed patients' experiences and coping strategies, alongside the assistance they needed during the dark-recovery stage [5,17,19,27,28,32].…”

“…Every transplant organ must go through a series of evaluation, matching, screening, and waiting procedures before it can be used in the transplant surgery; as such, it is often difficult for patients to secure organs and transplant surgeries. During the organ transplantation process, patients often undergo complicated physiological, psychological, social, and spiritual dark-recovery experiences, requiring close assistance from their healthcare team [5]. Healthcare teams should pay attention not only to patients' physical conditions but, also, to their mental states in order to improve their overall prognosis.…”