Help seeking in a support group for recipients of implantable cardioverterdefibrillators and their support persons

PURPOSE: To understand shared meanings of help-seeking experiences in suppo rt groups of people with implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) and t heir support persons. SETTING: ICD support group at an urban medical center. Sample: Fifteen indi viduals with ICD and 9 support persons. RESULTS: Six related themes and 1 constitutive pattern emerged. Themes incl uded hearing and telling stories, help seeking encouraged by triggers, seek ing meaningful information, forming a therapeutic friendship through group camaraderie, gaining assistance from the facilitator, and the sharing of a similar view by support persons. The constitutive pattern is coping with th e possibility of death. IMPLICATIONS: Health care providers may recommend storytelling as the centr al mechanism of inter actions in support groups that assist in coping with daily anxieties of living with an ICD. Nurses would be appropriate facilita tors to guide discussion, to provide technical information, and to promote anticipatory guidance in coping with potential firing events.