Relatives of a critically ill patient being cared for at an intensive care unit are in great need of support from the intensive care nurse. To be able to handle the stressful situation they need information, the opportunity to be involved and to be greeted in a positive manner.

The purpose of this study was to describe relatives' psychiatric health at an intensive care unit.

A cross-sectional study using a survey and qualitative content analysis was chosen as the design for this study.

The result reveals that relatives feel great concern and have a hard time relaxing. A lot of them feel anxiety and depression as a result of the strains from the time at the intensive care unit. To oscillate between hope and despair meant that they lived with great uncertainty and made it difficult to keep their motivation up. They describe that their psychiatric health is affected by the promotion of relationships, as they're living with uncertainty, as they're being able to handle the situation and as they're experiencing a loss of control.

The result of this study showed that relatives of a critically ill patient being cared for at an intensive care unit have a high occurrence of anxiety and depression. Resources need to be allocated to caring for relatives to prevent illness.