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This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Gjengedal, E., Sviland, R., Moi, A. L., Ellingsen, S., Flinterud, S. I., Sekse, R. J. T., . . . Råheim, M. (2019). Patients’ quest for recognition and continuity in health care: time for a new research agenda? Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 33(4), 978-985, which has been published in final form at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/scs.12696. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. User involvement is important in democratization of health care and is assumed to contribute to better and more relevant research. Despite increased requirements for user involvement in research, more studies are still needed. This study aimed at exploring what research agenda people with varied health problems consider as important, based on their own experience. The study had a phenomenological approach with a qualitative design. The sample consisted of 23 informants; nine had been critically ill and 14 were suffering from chronic muscle pain. Data were collected in five focus group interviews and one individual interview. A phenomenological approach was used in analyzing the data. Written consent was obtained from all the participants, and ethical considerations were taken throughout the entire research process. Despite various experiences among the participants, a quest to be taken seriously over time by healthcare professionals emerged as a strong meaning structure in both groups. Based on these experiences, continuity across lifetime changes turned out to be an important research topic for future research. User involvement should be appreciated in all parts of the research process. A crucial prerequisite is that the users get the opportunity to bring their own experiences into the process.

This study explores the lived experience of hospitalisation from the perspective of people with a mental health disorder. This hermeneutic-phenomenological study, which forms part of a larger qualitative serial inquiry, uses a participatory research design, with analysis inspired by interpretative phenomenological analysis. Fourteen participants were interviewed twice: first during hospitalisation and then again 3 months following hospital discharge. Findings are reported from the entire interview data set. Our findings suggest that mental health hospitalisation is a contradictory experience for patients. On one hand, our study participants experienced the hospital as a place where it is alright to be vulnerable, while on the other hand participants experienced hospitalisation as a burden of everyday stigma and signs of depersonalisation. We conclude that it is important to recognise that patients in need of inpatient treatment for mental illnesses are, in fact, people first and foremost. More reflective practice can be developed by shifting the focus to recovery-oriented practices to and open dialogue-based approaches.