A hermeneutic phenomenological study of stroke survivors' and healthcare practitioners' lived experience of the acute stroke unit

This presentation draws on the findings of a hermeneutic phenomenological study into the lived through experience of the acute stroke unit from two meaningful horizontal perspectives; that of stroke survivors and healthcare practitioners. This presentation will be structured around maps that were developed as part of the hermeneutic process. These maps were a device that helped me to open up and produce a space, and capture the complexity, spatiality, and holistic understanding being developed. They also embodied my involvement, position and place within them, as I drew, plotted, re-thought, interrogated and re-designed. I will be using them to share how the acute stroke unit was meaningfully lived through from the perspective of stroke survivors and healthcare practitioners, and how they also offered an avenue towards more holistic understanding of what was meaningful across the gestalt from a human lifeworld perspective.