The experience of life after burn injury: a new bodily awareness Asgjerd Litlere ´ Moi, Hallvard Andreas Vindenes & Eva Gjengedal Accepted for publication 4 July 2008 Correspondence to A.L. Moi: e-mail: asgjerd.moi@isf.uib.no Asgjerd Litlere ´ Moi MNSc RN Doctoral Student Section of Nursing Sciences, Department of Public Health and Primary Health Care, University of Bergen; and PhD Student/ Intensive Care Nurse Surgical Clinic, Department of Plastic Surgery and Burn Center, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway Hallvard Andreas Vindenes MD PhD Senior Consultant Surgical Clinic, Department of Plastic Surgery and Burn Center, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway Eva Gjengedal PhD RN Professor Section of Nursing Sciences, Department of Public Health and Primary Health Care, University of Bergen, Norway MOI A.L., VINDENES H.A. & GJENGEDAL E. (2008) MOI A.L., VINDENES H.A. & GJENGEDAL E. (2008) The experience of life after burn injury: a new bodily awareness. Journal of Advanced Nursing 64(3), 278–286 doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.2008.04807.x Abstract Title. The experience of life after burn injury: a new bodily awareness. Aim. This paper is a report of a study to describe the injured body of people who have survived a major burn and seeks to understand the essence of their lived experience. Background. The burden of a burn-injured body, including loss of function, altered appearance and psychological distress, can threaten return to preburn state of life and successful return to society. Method. Fourteen participants (three women and 11 men; mean age 46 years) who had survived a major burn were interviewed in 2005–2006 an average 14 months after injury. A Husserlian phenomenological approach was adopted. Findings. A new and demanding bodily awareness, disclosing both limitations and potentials, emerged as the essence of the burn survivors’ experience of their injured bodies. This was supported by a descriptive structure of the body as telling a new story, being unfamiliar to watch and sense, vulnerable and in need of protection, more present with a variety of nuisances, having brakes on and resisting habitual actions, as well as being insecure when distrusting own abilities. Participants typi- cally experienced losing the familiarity of their bodies as anonymous and uncon- sciously at hand for all possible actions in everyday life. Significant others served as buffers, extensions of participants’ injured bodies, reducing obstacles and insecurity in all aspects of life. Conclusion. The lived experience of people who have sustained a burn injury should be recognized and valued by nurses in all phases of burn care. Nurses have an important role in facilitating the presence and involvement of family and friends in the recovery and rehabilitation of burn survivors. Keywords: bodily awareness, burn injury, experience, nursing, phenomenology, quality of life, rehabilitation Introduction Advances in burn care have resulted in decreased mortality, and more people with massive burns are surviving (Klein et al. 2007). In spite of multidisciplinary and high-quality acute care and follow-up, burn survivors frequently have cosmetic and functional impairments that can never be completely corrected (Pereira et al. 2004). Qualitative studies may add significantly to our understanding of the implications and meanings of the injury as experienced by the people who have experienced a burn (Malterud 2001). ORIGINAL RESEARCH JAN 278 Ó 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation Ó 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd