There are nursing phenomena that are not amenable to experimental investigative research methods instead, a qualitative inquiry using a phenomenological approach. This type of study uses questions grounded in philosophical beliefs about humans and the holistic nature of professional nursing. Investigating phenomena vital to nursing requires researchers to explore lived experiences as they are presented in the everyday world of nursing practice. This paper examines the lived experiences of patients, family members, and nurses during critical illness in the intensive care unit using Merleau-Ponty’s existentials of embodiment, temporality, spatiality, and relationality. The study shed light on the patients, their families, and nurses’ embodied temporal, spatial, and relational horizons, and reveals a new conception of critical illness that will provide caregivers with knowledge about effective care and open new ways for coping among patients and their families, as well as caregiving possibilities for the nurses.