Critical Care Nurses' Perceptions in End-of-Life Situations

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Recommended: nursing as a cultural diversity

Critical Care Nurses Perceptions in End-of-Life Situations

Forsyth Technical Community College

Literature Review

It is estimated between 70 and 80 percent of any population will die in an

institutional setting (Tan, Low, Yap, Lee, Pang, & Wu 2006). The majority of those will be in a hospital setting. Intensive Care Nurses play a vital role in the care of many of these patients. The literature reviewed for this paper contains research on the process of caring for dying patients in three different yet vital methods. The first conducted a written survey of the nursing staff in a hospital that employed and treated a large multicultural population. Participants were given a set of conditional statements and were allowed to answer by utilizing a Likert scale ranging from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagreeing with the statement. The second research was completed by allowing volunteers from the ICU nursing field to participate in focus group sessions. The moderator provided an opening by asking the group to think of a critical care patient that the nurse had recently cared for and then guided the open discussion about their experience. The third was a purely empirical research program. The researchers reviewed the patient’s medical files and attempted to determine the patients “Turning Point”. This phrase is utilized to describe when the patient’s care turns from treatment or rehabilitation care to holistic and palliative (Jakobsson, Bergh, & Ohlen, 2007).

All three-research programs yielded information concerning how Intensive Care Nurses relate to the patients. This paper will explore what those findings were and how we can use them to ...

... middle of paper ...

...e should be professional training on how best to effectively communicate with them. Research reveals that honest medical conditions explained in easy to understand language is primarily the best approach. This should be delivered in a compassionate way.

References

Jakobsson, E., Bergh., Ingrid, B., Ohlen,. J. (2007). The turning point: identifying end-

of-life care in everyday health practice. Contemporary Nurse 27 (1). 107-117.

Popejoy, L. L., Brandt, L. C., Mary, B., Linda, A., (2009). Intensive care unit nurse

perceptions of caring for the dying. Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing

11 (3), 179-184.

Tan, J., Low, A., Yap, P., Lee, A., Weng., S,. Yingjuan, W. (2006, May). Caring for

dying patients and those facing death in an acute-care hospital in Singapore.

Journal of Gerontological Nursing. 17-23.

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