Abstract
Traffic-accidents are a major problem in our society. There has not been done much nursing research on the coping aspects after a traffic-accident. The research question was: How does a person with whiplash experience life after a traffic-accident? This project is placed in a phenomenal research tradition and six persons were interviewed, three men and three women. The Norwegian Whiplash Union was helpful in finding interviewees. The result was analysed according to Giorgi's phenomenological method. The discussion is based on Benner's and Wrubel's nursing theory on stress and coping. Lazarus's and Folkmann's psychological theory is also used. The article is presented in five themes based on the results of the research, the first two are about the accident and the pain, the next two is about the help they received and how the new life turned out after the accident, and the last one is about acseptation. This statments resulted in a number of coping strategies.