Pflege
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Comparative Study
[Decision-making processes in nursing and activities at the end of life in intensive care–An international comparative study].
Intensive care units (ICUs) are traditionally settings that offer high technologically advanced treatment for those who are in critical situations due to an illness or accident. Questions regarding the withdrawal and withholding as well as the ending of life sustaining treatment are related to ethical dilemmas. Nurses’ decision-making processes and nursing activities in different countries are scarcely studied. ⋯ In all countries a nursing terrain of activities in end-of-life care could be identified and described. However, it is unclear whether nursing activities connected to relatives of the patient are dominant in such a way that relations to dying patients and respect for their autonomy are put into the background. A field study could give answers to this question possible.