Alleviation of Pain and Symptoms With a Life-Shortening Intention

This article reports the findings of a study into the role of Dutch nurses in the alleviation of pain and symptoms with a life-shortening intention, conducted as part of a study into the role of nurses in medical end-of-life decisions. A questionnaire survey was carried out using a population of 150...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: van Bruchem-van de Scheur, Grada (Ada) G (Author) ; van der Arend, Arie JG (Author) ; Abu-Saad, Huda Huijer (Author) ; van Wijmen, Frans CB (Author) ; Spreeuwenberg, Cor (Author) ; ter Meulen, Ruud HJ (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage 2008
In: Nursing ethics
Year: 2008, Volume: 15, Issue: 5, Pages: 682-695
Further subjects:B Decision Making
B Survey
B life shortening
B alleviation of pain and symptoms
B Nurses
B Guidelines
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:This article reports the findings of a study into the role of Dutch nurses in the alleviation of pain and symptoms with a life-shortening intention, conducted as part of a study into the role of nurses in medical end-of-life decisions. A questionnaire survey was carried out using a population of 1509 nurses who were employed in hospitals, home care organizations and nursing homes. The response rate was 82.0%; 78.1% (1179) were suitable for analysis. The results show that in about half of the cases (55.8%) nurses were involved in the decision making by the physician and that nurses were frequently (81.5%) involved in administering the medication. The authors' conclusion is that alleviation of pain and symptoms with a life-shortening intention represents a `grey' area, in which physicians and nurses act on the basis of personal ethical norms rather than legal rules, professional guidelines or shared moral values.
ISSN:1477-0989
Contains:Enthalten in: Nursing ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/0969733008092876