Beyond technology, drips, and machines: Moral distress in PICU nurses caring for end-of-life patients

Title

Beyond technology, drips, and machines: Moral distress in PICU nurses caring for end-of-life patients

Creator

Gagnon M; Kunyk D

Identifier

Publisher

Nursing Inquiry

Date

2021

Subject

Canada; moral distress; pediatric intensive care; death and dying; end-of-life care

Description

Moral distress is an experience of profound moral compromise with deeply impactful and potentially long-term consequences to the individual. Critical care areas are fraught with ethical issues, and end-of-life care has been associated with numerous incidences of moral distress among nurses. One such area where the dichotomy of life and death seems to be at its sharpest is in the pediatric intensive care unit. The purpose of this study was to understand the moral distress experiences of pediatric intensive care nurses when caring for pediatric patients at the end of life. A secondary analysis was undertaken of seven transcripts from registered nurses across six Canadian pediatric intensive care units and produced three themes: under prioritization of child patient dignity, burden of insider knowledge, and environmental constraints on nursing roles and responsibilities. When caring for patients at the end of life, nurses experienced moral distress when a dignified death was not realized. Furthermore, despite interprofessional collaboration efforts in Canada, the concept of silo mentality persists and contributes to moral distress. Organizational involvement is needed to address moral distress in pediatric intensive care nurses both to achieve a dignified death for child patients and in addressing silo mentality.

Rights

Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).

Citation List Month

August 2021 List

Collection

Citation

Gagnon M; Kunyk D, “Beyond technology, drips, and machines: Moral distress in PICU nurses caring for end-of-life patients,” Pediatric Palliative Care Library, accessed October 6, 2024, https://pedpalascnetlibrary.omeka.net/items/show/17626.