The broad objectives of this study are to describe and understand caring practices of nurses caring for dying patients in intensive care units in order to inform practice and influence decision-making regarding resource allocation and the role of the nurse in end-of-life issues.
Specific aims i nclude: 1. To describe and explicate specific caring practices of nurses for both dying patients and their family members during the dying time. 2. To explore interpersonal concerns and background meanings of expert nurses caring for dying patients in critical care, including ethical beliefs and issues. 3. To explore interpersonal concerns and background meanings of bereaved family members related to the death event in the ICU. Critical care nurses from four critical care areas at two hospitals will be interviewed in groups to obtain narrative accounts describing their experiences with dying patients. A subset of these nurses will be observed caring for dying patients, followed by intensive interviewing focused on the dying event. Bereaved family members will be interviewed several weeks after the death as recipients of care as well as agents of the patient. Interpretive phenomenological methods will be utilized to analyze the data. The software MARTIN will be used for data management.
