Innovations and developments in life support technologies have decreased the intensive care unit (ICU) mortality rate from 72 % to 38 % over the last 40 years (Bemis-Dougherty and Smith, 2013, Máca et al., 2017). The increase in ICU survival has resulted in three times as many ICU patients surviving as in the past, with millions of critically ill patients being discharged from the ICU (Zil et al., 2022). Nevertheless, 25 % to 100 % of survivors suffered from ICU-acquired weakness due to critical illness and prolonged bed immobility (De Jonghe et al., 2002, Stevens et al., 2009, Puthucheary et al., 2010). Many studies have verified that early mobilization is an efficient measure that may reduce critical illness-associated muscle weakness (Dantas et al., 2012, Kayambu et al., 2013, Dong et al., 2016, Hodgson et al., 2016, Machado et al., 2017, McWilliams et al., 2018, Wright et al., 2018).

Existing studies reported that less than half of the ICUs in Western countries regularly perform early mobilization, while only 10 % regularly utilize sitting and standing activities (Jolley et al., 2015, Bakhru et al., 2016), which means the uptake of early mobilization in the ICU remains low. Implementing early mobilization in the ICU is influenced by various factors, including medical personnel-related factors, patient-related factors, and environmental factors, among which patient-related factors, especially the patients’ psychological status, are essential aspects affecting their performance in early mobilization (Williams and Flynn, 2013, Nydahl et al., 2014, Dubb et al., 2016, Alaparthi et al., 2020, Parker et al., 2022).

However, the connections between patients’ psychological status and performance during early mobilization still need to be better understood. The qualitative analysis enables the researchers to assess the views of people encountering medical problems, creating medical-related choices, and acquiring care in intervention studies (Laerkner et al., 2019). Although some qualitative research studies have explored the experiences of critically sick patients regarding early mobilization, only some studies have synthesized existing qualitative findings on patients’ needs and reactions during early mobilization.

In order to help health professionals provide better support during mobilization, this study aimed to synthesize the current qualitative research findings to identify the needs of critically ill adult patients and understand what factors influence their participation in early mobilization in the ICU.