Acting Slow in a Fast World: A Phenomenological Study of Caring in the Recovery Room

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss “the slow in the fast” related to care situations in a “fast-track” hospital
setting were the length of patients’ stay has been reduced significantly. The discussion is based
on a narrative created from observations made in a postoperative care unit where patients are
intensively observed and cared for during a very short time span.
We found that within the phenomenological notions of lived time, lived space and lived
illness, it is possible to create an imaginative space in time – to make a time warp. Despite
being in a setting where the objective time measure dominates, the nurse can create a rhythm
of her own in the room. Thus, acting slow in the quick meeting means that nurse-patient
relationship is characterized by calmness and quietness, the nurse’s engagement in the patient’s
suffering and her help to the patient to endure the present and hold the now.