• Aust Crit Care · Jul 2020

    The differing perspectives of doctors and nurses in end-of-life decisions in the intensive care unit: A qualitative study.

    • Liz Flannery, Kath Peters, and Lucie M Ramjan.
    • Western Sydney University, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia. Electronic address: l.flannery@westernsydney.edu.au.
    • Aust Crit Care. 2020 Jul 1; 33 (4): 311-316.

    BackgroundEnd-of-life (EOL) decision-making in the intensive care unit (ICU) can be emotionally challenging for both doctors and nurses, who are sometimes placed in difficult positions where they are required to make decisions on behalf of patients. With an ageing population and advances in medical technology, there is an increase in such decisions being made in ICUs.ObjectivesThe objective of this study was to explore the perspectives of doctors and nurses involved in the EOL decision-making process in an ICU.MethodsThis study used a qualitative methodology based on naturalistic inquiry. Intensive care nurses and doctors from a large Sydney metropolitan public hospital were purposively selected, and data saturation was reached after a total of eight nurses and four doctors were interviewed. Data were collected through semistructured interviews, either face-to-face or over the telephone. Interviews were then transcribed verbatim, and themes were identified and coded through a line-by-line analysis of each transcript (manual thematic analysis).FindingsThe findings revealed two main themes: 'Doctors' and nurses' roles in decision-making' and 'Managing family expectations'. These themes highlighted key differences in decision-making processes, in that doctors tended to aim to meet the family's needs, while the nurses tended to advocate on behalf of the patient and what they interpreted as the patient's best interests. Furthermore, nurses tended to feel undervalued in decision-making during family conferences, when in reality, the doctors were making decisions based on all information obtained, primarily from nursing staff.ConclusionsEOL decision-making is complex and affects doctors and nurses involved in different ways. More emphasis on interprofessional education and collaboration between the two disciplines may enhance future decision-making processes.Crown Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…