scholarly journals Providing a “Good Death”: Critical Care Nurses’ Suggestions for Improving End-of-Life Care

2006 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renea L. Beckstrand ◽  
Lynn Clark Callister ◽  
Karin T. Kirchhoff
Keyword(s):  
Critical Care ◽  
Intensive Care ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Critical Care Nurses ◽  
Good Death ◽  
Primary Concern ◽  
Major Theme ◽  
Life Care ◽  
The Public

• Background Providing appropriate end-of-life care has become a primary concern of nurses and the public. The highly technological critical care environment may not facilitate such care. • Objective To collect suggestions from critical care nurses for improving end-of-life care in intensive care units. • Methods A geographically dispersed, random sample of 1409 members of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses was sent a 72-item survey on perceptions of end-of life care. The survey included a request for suggestions on ways to improve end-of life care. • Results Of the 861 critical care nurses who responded to the survey, 485 offered 530 suggestions for improving end-of-life care. Providing a “good death” was the major theme; specific suggestions included ways to help ensure death with dignity and peace. Barriers to providing good deaths included nursing time constraints, staffing patterns, communication challenges, and treatment decisions that were based on physicians’ rather than patients’ needs. Suggestions for providing a good death included facilitating dying with dignity; not allowing patients to be alone while dying; managing patients’ pain and discomfort; knowing, and then following, patients’ wishes for end-of-life care; promoting earlier cessation of treatment or not initiating aggressive treatment at all; and communicating effectively as a health-care team. Educational initiatives for professionals and the public were also suggested. • Conclusions Implementation of specific suggestions provided by experienced critical care nurses might increase the quality of end-of-life care, facilitating a good death for intensive care patients.

scholarly journals Family Behaviors as Unchanging Obstacles in End-of-Life Care: 16-Year Comparative Data

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. e81-e91
Author(s):  
Renea L. Beckstrand ◽  
Jasmine B. Jenkins ◽  
Karlen E. Luthy ◽  
Janelle L. B. Macintosh
Keyword(s):  
Intensive Care Unit ◽  
Critical Care ◽  
Intensive Care ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Critical Care Nurses ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Over Time

Background Critical care nurses routinely care for dying patients. Research on obstacles in providing end-of-life care has been conducted for more than 20 years, but change in such obstacles over time has not been examined. Objective To determine whether the magnitude scores of obstacles and helpful behaviors regarding end-of-life care have changed over time. Methods In this cross-sectional survey study, questionnaires were sent to 2000 randomly selected members of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. Obstacle and helpful behavior items were analyzed using mean magnitude scores. Current data were compared with data gathered in 1999. Results Of the 2000 questionnaires mailed, 509 usable responses were received. Six obstacle magnitude scores increased significantly over time, of which 4 were related to family issues (not accepting the poor prognosis, intrafamily fighting, overriding the patient’s end-of-life wishes, and not understanding the meaning of the term lifesaving measures). Two were related to nurse issues. Seven obstacles decreased in magnitude, including poor design of units, overly restrictive visiting hours, and physicians avoiding conversations with families. Four helpful behavior magnitude scores increased significantly over time, including physician agreement on patient care and family access to the patient. Three helpful behavior items decreased in magnitude, including intensive care unit design. Conclusions The same end-of-life care obstacles that were reported in 1999 are still present. Obstacles related to family behaviors increased significantly, whereas obstacles related to intensive care unit environment or physician behaviors decreased significantly. These results indicate a need for better end-of-life education for families and health care providers.

scholarly journals Providing End-of-Life Care to Patients: Critical Care Nurses’ Perceived Obstacles and Supportive Behaviors

2005 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 395-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renea L. Beckstrand ◽  
Karin T. Kirchhoff
Keyword(s):  
Intensive Care Unit ◽  
Critical Care ◽  
Intensive Care ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Critical Care Nurses ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Supportive Behaviors

• Background Critical care nurses care for dying patients daily. The process of dying in an intensive care unit is complicated, and research on specific obstacles that impede delivery of end-of-life care and/or supportive behaviors that help in delivery of end-of-life care is limited. • Objective To measure critical care nurses’ perceptions of the intensity and frequency of occurrence of (1) obstacles to providing end-of-life care and (2) supportive behaviors that help in providing end-of-life care in the intensive care unit. • Methods An experimental, posttest-only, control-group design was used. A national, geographically dispersed, random sample of members of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses was surveyed. • Results The response rate was 61.3%, 864 usable responses from 1409 eligible respondents. The highest scoring obstacles were frequent telephone calls from patients’ family members for information, patients’ families who did not understand the term lifesaving measures, and physicians disagreeing about the direction of a dying patient’s care. The highest scoring supportive behaviors were allowing patients’ family members adequate time alone with patients after death, providing peaceful and dignified bedside scenes after death, and teaching patients’ families how to act around a dying patient. • Conclusions The biggest obstacles to appropriate end-of-life care in the intensive care unit are behaviors of patients’ families that remove nurses from caring for patients, behaviors that prolong patients’ suffering or cause patients pain, and physicians’ disagreement about the plan of care.

Thinking about strengths in end-of-life nursing practice: the case of intensive care unit nurses

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 378-385
Author(s):  
Brandi Vanderspank-Wright ◽  
David Kenneth Wright ◽  
Kim McMillan
Keyword(s):  
Intensive Care Unit ◽  
Critical Care ◽  
Intensive Care ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Nursing Practice ◽  
Critical Care Nurses ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Ethical Practice ◽  
Care Nursing

Background: The intensive care unit (ICU) is a care context that is sometimes described as being unconducive to the values and ideals of a good death in end-of-life care. Such assumptions render the ICU emblematic of a troubling discourse about end-of-life care in this clinical context. Aim: To stimulate a reflective examination of intensive care nursing practice with respect to end-of-life care. Methods: The work of contemporary nursing scholar Laurie Gottlieb is used to perform a strengths-based relational ethical examination of previously published literature that describes critical care nurses' experiences of providing end-of-life care in the ICU. Findings: This literature suggests that the relational ethical value of authentic engagement, which is fundamental to the disciplinary ethos of expert palliative care nursing, is reflected in the everyday practice of intensive care nurses whose patients die while under their care. Conclusion: A strengths-based approach can make visible the relational ethical practice of critical care nurses who care for dying patients and their families in the ICU.

Critical Care Nurses’ Suggestions to Improve End-of-Life Care Obstacles

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 264-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renea L. Beckstrand ◽  
Kacie Hart Hadley ◽  
Karlen E. Luthy ◽  
Janelle L. B. Macintosh
Keyword(s):  
Critical Care ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Critical Care Nurses ◽  
Life Care

530: Education on End-of-Life Care for Pediatric Critical Care Nurses: A Needs Assessment

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 257-257
Author(s):  
Kelley Groves ◽  
Larissa Anglim ◽  
Tensing Maa ◽  
Megan Daniel ◽  
Markita Suttle
Keyword(s):  
Critical Care ◽  
Needs Assessment ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Critical Care Nurses ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Pediatric Critical Care

The Growth of Palliative Practice and End of Life Care in an Academic Teaching Intensive Care Unit

2022 ◽  
pp. 088506662110690
Author(s):  
Daniel King ◽  
Erica Schockett ◽  
Ghazi Rizvi ◽  
Daniel Fischer ◽  
Richard Amdur ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Intensive Care Unit ◽  
Critical Care ◽  
Intensive Care ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Univariate Analysis ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Do Not Resuscitate ◽  
Comfort Care ◽  
Over Time

Objective Dying in the intensive care unit (ICU) has changed over the last twenty years due to increased utilization of palliative care. We sought to examine how palliative medicine (PM) integration into critical care medicine has changed outcomes in end of life including the utilization of do not resuscitate (no cardiopulmonary resuscitation but continue treatment) and comfort care orders (No resuscitation, only comfort medication). Design: Retrospective observational review of critical care patients who died during admission between two decades, 2008 to 09 and 2018 to 19. Setting: Single urban tertiary care academic medical center in Washington, D.C. Patients: Adult patients who were treated in any ICU during the admission which they died. Interventions and Measurements We sought to measure PM involvement across the two decades and its association with end of life care including do not resuscitate (DNR) and comfort care (CC) orders. Main Results: 571 cases were analyzed. Mean age was 65 ± 15, 46% were female. In univariate analysis significantly more patients received PM in 2018 to 19 (40% vs. 27%, p = .002). DNR status increased significantly over time (74% to 84%, p = .002) and was significantly more common in patients who were receiving PM (96% vs. 72%, p < 0.001). CC also increased over time (56% to 70%, p = <0.001), and was more common in PM patients (87% vs. 53%, p < 0.001). Death in the ICU decreased significantly over time (94% to 86%, p = .002) and was significantly lower in PM patients (76% vs. 96%, p < 0.001). The adjusted odds of getting CC for those receiving versus those not receiving PM were 14.51 (5.49-38.36, p < 0.001) in 2008 to 09 versus 3.89 (2.27-6.68, p < 0.001) in 2018 to 19. Conclusion: PM involvement increased significantly across a decade in our ICU and was significantly associated with incidence of DNR and CC orders as well as the decreased incidence of dying in the ICU. The increase in DNR and CC orders independent of PM over the past decade reflect intensivists delivering PM services.

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