Caring About - Caring For: moral obligations and work responsibilities in intensive care nursing

2004 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agneta Cronqvist ◽  
Töres Theorell ◽  
Tom Burns ◽  
Kim Lützén
Keyword(s):  
Intensive Care ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Advanced Technology ◽  
Main Theme ◽  
Moral Obligations ◽  
Intensive Care Nurses ◽  
Intensive Care Nursing ◽  
Care Nursing

The aim of this study was to analyse experiences of moral concerns in intensive care nursing. The theoretical perspective of the study is based on relational ethics, also referred to as ethics of care. The participants were 36 intensive care nurses from 10 general, neonatal and thoracic intensive care units. The structural characteristics of the units were similar: a high working pace, advanced technology, budget restrictions, recent reorganization, and shortage of experienced nurses. The data consisted of the participants’ examples of ethical situations they had experienced in their intensive care unit. A qualitative content analysis identified five themes: believing in a good death; knowing the course of events; feelings of distress; reasoning about physicians’ ‘doings’ and tensions in expressing moral awareness. A main theme was formulated as caring about - caring for: moral obligations and work responsibilities. Moral obligations and work responsibilities are assumed to be complementary dimensions in nursing, yet they were found not to be in balance for intensive care nurses. In conclusion there is a need to support nurses in difficult intensive care situations, for example, by mentoring, as a step towards developing moral action knowledge in the context of intensive care nursing.

Up-Skilling and the Intensification of Work: The ‘Extended Role’ in Intensive Care Nursing and Midwifery

1995 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 765-781 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Harvey
Keyword(s):  
Intensive Care ◽  
Medical Profession ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Management Control ◽  
Intensive Care Nurses ◽  
Seminal Work ◽  
Sexual Division ◽  
Core Theory ◽  
Intensive Care Nursing ◽  
Care Nursing

In his seminal work Braverman (1974) suggested that, like manual workers, the majority of ‘non-productive’ workers are equally subject to scrutiny and Tayloristic methods of rationalisation and differentiation (sub-division of work into simple, repetitive operations) of the tasks they perform. The result is ‘de-skilling’ whereby labour is reduced to the repetitive performance of mechanical tasks and an intensification of work is achieved. Following the debate that has arisen from Braverman's work, concentrating largely on either de-skilling and/or strategies of management control, there have been wide-ranging qualifications to Braverman's core theory. I wish to suggest that ‘up-skilling’ (as opposed to de-skilling) may also represent an intensification of work, since the terms and conditions under which skill is enhanced is centrally relevant. This is argued in relation to the ‘extended role’ functions of midwives and Intensive Care nurses, whereby the tasks normally carried out by doctors are performed in a proxy capacity by nurses/midwives, while remaining in the ‘ownership’ of the medical profession. In the course of the above discussion, the article explores the way in which the sexual division of labour (between the female gendered profession of nursing and the male gendered medical profession) changed but survived in a negotiated form.

Intensive care nurses’ experiences of Covid-19 care: A practical and ethical challenge – a qualitative descriptive design

2021 ◽  
pp. 205715852110627
Author(s):  
Anna-Lena Stenlund ◽  
Gunilla Strandberg
Keyword(s):  
Intensive Care ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Treatment Strategies ◽  
Ethical Challenge ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Intensive Care Nurses ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive ◽  
Heavy Burden ◽  
New Treatment

The Covid-19 pandemic has generated new experiences of intensive care. It has entailed new working methods, treatment strategies, and ethical dilemmas. The aim of this study was to describe intensive care nurses’ experiences of Covid-19 care and its ethical challenges. Data collection consisted of 11 individual semi-structured interviews and a qualitative content analysis was used. The COREQ checklist was followed. Three main themes emerged: to meet Covid-19 patients’ needs for specifically tailored intensive care; to have a changed approach to the excluded relatives is unethical, but defensible; and to strive to protect ethical values needs to be considered as good enough. In conclusion, ICU nurses shouldered a heavy burden in taking responsibility for the safety of these patients, continuously learning about new treatment strategies. Caring for Covid-19 patients was to strive to make the best of the situation.

scholarly journals Patient safety: understanding human error in intensive nursing care

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabrina da Costa Machado Duarte ◽  
Marluci Andrade Conceição Stipp ◽  
Maria Manuela Vila Nova Cardoso ◽  
Andreas Büscher
Keyword(s):  
Intensive Care ◽  
Nursing Care ◽  
Human Error ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Quality Care ◽  
Hospital Data ◽  
Nursing Team ◽  
Proactive Measures ◽  
Intensive Care Nursing ◽  
Care Nursing

ABSTRACT Objective: To analyze the active failures and the latent conditions related to errors in intensive nursing care and to discuss the reactive and proactive measures mentioned by the nursing team. Method: Qualitative, descriptive, exploratory study conducted at the Intensive Care Unit of a general hospital. Data were collected through interviews, participant observation and submitted to lexical analysis in the ALCESTE® software and to ethnographic analysis. Results: 36 professionals of the nursing team participated in the study. The analysis originated three lexical classes: Error in intensive care nursing; Active failures and latent conditions related to errors in the intensive care nursing team; Reactive and proactive measures adopted by the nursing team regarding errors in intensive care. Conclusion: Reactive and proactive measures influenced the safety culture, in particular, the recognition of errors by professionals, contributing to their prevention, safety and quality care.

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