Research Article Gateway to Recovery: A Comparative Analysis of Stroke Patients’ Experiences of Change and Learning in Norway and Denmark Hanne Pallesen , 1 Lena Aadal , 1 Siri Moe , 2 and Cathrine Arntzen 3,4 1 Hammel Neurorehabilitation Centre and University Research Clinic, RM, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark 2 Department of Health and Care Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Tromsø, Te Arctic University of Norway, 9037 Tromsø, Norway 3 Centre for Care Research, North, Department of Health and Care Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT the Arctic University of Norway, Norway 4 Division of Rehabilitation Services, University Hospital of North Norway, 9038 Tromsø, Norway Correspondence should be addressed to Hanne Pallesen; hannpall@rm.dk Received 5 November 2018; Accepted 19 December 2018; Published 17 January 2019 Academic Editor: Jefrey Jutai Copyright © 2019 Hanne Pallesen et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objectives. Te recovery process is reported by stroke survivors to be a change process fraught with crises and hazard. Interaction with health professionals and others may play a central role in establishing renewed control over life. Research Questions. (1) How do patients handle and overcome experienced changes afer stroke? (2) How do they experience the support to handle these changes during the frst year afer stroke? (3) How do the similarities and diferences transpire in Danish and Norwegian contexts? Methodology. A qualitative method was chosen. Six patients from Denmark and fve patients from Norway (aged 25-66) were followed up until one year afer stroke, by way of individual interviews. Te data were analyzed (using NVivo 11) by means of phenomenological analysis. Findings. Te participants described four main issues in the recovery process that impacted the experienced changes: (i) strategies and personal factors that promote motivation, (ii) the involvement of family, social network, and peers, (iii) professionals’ support, and (iv) social structures that limit the recovery process. Tere was a diversity of professional support and some interesting variations in fndings about factors that afected recovery and the ability to manage a new life situation between Central Denmark and Northern Norway. Both Norwegian and Danish participants experienced positive changes and progress on the bodily level, as well as in terms of activity and participation. Furthermore, they learned how to overcome limitations, especially in bodily functions and daily activities at home. Unfortunately, progress or support related to psychosocial rehabilitation was almost absent in the Norwegian data. 1. Introduction Stroke is a very common illness. It ofen leads to lifelong critical disability [1]. All stroke survivors are at risk of complications during recovery, regardless of stroke severity [2]. Patients’ initial experiences afer the onset of stroke are well described in various studies [3, 4]. Te frst review of the patient’s experiences of stroke was published in 1988 by Doolittle [3, 4]. Tis was followed in 1997 by Hafsteinsdottir & Grypdonck, in their work “Being a stroke patient” [5], which showed that, in relation to functional abilities, stroke patients ofen have clear goals for themselves, against which they measure all success and progress in their rehabilitation. Furthermore, stroke patients see recovery as a return to the life they had lived before the stroke, which is diferent from the view sometimes held by health care providers, which they consider to be “more realistic” [6]. Many studies describe stroke as a sudden interruption of what was otherwise expected to be a normal life course, which disrupts everything related to the activities of daily living [6, 8–10]. In gaining a modicum of control over the body and habitual tasks, they start to be able to cope and shape their training to suit their own requirements [11]. Strategies for motivating and learning are linked in other studies to work identities [12]. Interaction with health professionals and with others in the same situation and the same surroundings Hindawi Rehabilitation Research and Practice Volume 2019, Article ID 1726964, 14 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/1726964