Aims and Objectives To explore the transition from hospital to home and patient experiences of nurse‐led post‐operative follow‐up phone calls after thoracic surgery. Background Enhanced Recovery After Surgery protocol places new demands on patients after hospital. Need for a proactive approach to improve the post‐operative follow‐up process in the home is required. Design Qualitative intervention study. Methods Interviews were conducted with patients who had received a post‐operative phone call after hospital discharge (n = 15). The analysis was inspired by Gadamer and Meleis. COREQ guidelines were followed. Results Two overall themes emerged: (1) The follow‐up phone call, which concerns experiences involving the actual call and (2) Transitioning from hospital to home, which through four subthemes illuminates; how patients describe their initial time at home, that patients experience a changed body after surgery, that patients feel alone after returning home and that a call from a nurse can help patients not to feel left out and finally why it is absolutely essential that nurses initiate the phone call. Conclusion Patients are at different stages in their transition process after hospital, making timing of follow‐up tricky. Being part of an Enhanced Recovery After Surgery programme has implications for the initial period after discharge; dominated by fatigue, pain and experiences of a changed body. Patients experience being left alone with their illness, and the phone call helps to relieve this isolation. It is essential that the nurse call the patient since the patients want to avoid disturbing the staff. Relevance to clinical practice Healthcare workers can use the findings to understand how patients experience the transition from hospital to home when enrolled in an Enhanced Recovery After Surgery programme. Need for support from a nurse following discharge is suggested.

Background: Research has identified how people living with incurable esophageal cancer experience existential concerns. Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the phenomenon of existential anxiety when living with esophageal cancer in the context of receiving general palliative care in a hospital setting. Methods: This qualitative study is inspired by phenomenological and hermeneutical aspects of the philosophies of Ricoeur and Heidegger. Applying Heidegger's theory of existential anxiety and nostalgia, we interpreted the narratives of 18 patients receiving palliative care due to incurable esophageal cancer. Results: The patients experienced existential anxiety at the loss of a future and homeliness when receiving palliative care. Their existence was reduced to the present, with a break in temporal continuity. An anxious mood permeated their entire being-in-the-world in an unhomelike way. Despite this, patients initiated a restoration of home and meaning expressed as a soothing sense of nostalgia that served as an atmospheric, safe space allowing them to inhabit the borderline between past, present, and future. Conclusions: The study suggests an empirical interpretation of the existential anxiety patients experience when receiving palliation for incurable