Limitation of therapeutic effort experienced by intensive care nurses

Background:Nurses who practice limitation of therapeutic effort become fully involved in emotionally charged situations, which can affect them significantly on an emotional and professional level.Objectives:To describe the experience of intensive care nurses practicing limitation of therapeutic effo...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Velarde-García, Juan Francisco (Author) ; Luengo-González, Raquel (Author) ; González-Hervías, Raquel (Author) ; Cardenete-Reyes, César (Author) ; Álvarez-Embarba, Beatriz (Author) ; Palacios-Ceña, Domingo (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage 2018
In: Nursing ethics
Year: 2018, Volume: 25, Issue: 7, Pages: 867-879
Further subjects:B Nursing Care
B Intensive Care Unit
B withholding treatment
B Nurse
B end-of-life care
Online Access: Volltext (kostenfrei)
Description
Summary:Background:Nurses who practice limitation of therapeutic effort become fully involved in emotionally charged situations, which can affect them significantly on an emotional and professional level.Objectives:To describe the experience of intensive care nurses practicing limitation of therapeutic effort.Method:A qualitative, phenomenological study was performed within the intensive care units of the Madrid Hospitals Health Service. Purposeful and snowball sampling methods were used, and data collection methods included semi-structured and unstructured interviews, researcher field notes, and participants’ personal letters. The Giorgi proposal for data analysis was used on the data.Ethical considerations:This study was approved by the Ethical Research Committee of the relevant hospital and by the Ethics Committee of the Rey Juan Carlos University and was guided by the ethical principles of voluntary enrollment, anonymity, privacy, and confidentiality.Results:In total, 22 nurses participated and 3 themes were identified regarding the nurses’ experiences when faced with limitation of therapeutic effort: (a) experiencing relief, (b) accepting the medical decision, and (c) implementing limitation of therapeutic effort.Conclusion:Nurses felt that, although they were burdened with the responsibility of implementing limitation of therapeutic effort, they were being left out of the final decision-making process regarding the same.
ISSN:1477-0989
Contains:Enthalten in: Nursing ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/0969733016679471