Incorporating spiritual beliefs into end-of-life care

Medical futility and end-of-life care: perspectives from practice. Coping with medical futility

Advances in technology a nd medical knowledge have dramatically altered our ability to sustain life in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Many things come into play for the nurse when establishing patient goals, respecting patient's wishes, and valuing spiritual and cultural beliefs in end-of-life care. A veteran ICU nurse shares the challenges of caring and how, she copes when medical interventions seem futile.

Novice Nurses’ Experiences With Palliative and End-of-Life Communication

Health care providers recognize that delivery of effective communication with family members of children with life-threatening illnesses is essential to palliative and end-of-life care (PC/EOL). Parents value the presence of nurses during PC/EOL of their dying child. It is vital that nurses, regardless of their years of work experience, are competent and feel comfortable engaging family members of dying children in PC/EOL discussions. This qualitative-descriptive study used focus groups to explore the PC/EOL communication perspectives of 14 novice pediatric oncology nurses (eg, with less than 1 year of experience). Audio-taped focus group discussions were reviewed to develop the following 6 theme categories: ( a) Sacred Trust to Care for the Child and Family, ( b) An Elephant in the Room, ( c) Struggling with Emotional Unknowns, ( d) Kaleidoscope of Death: Patterns and Complexity, ( e) Training Wheels for Connectedness: Critical Mentors during PC/EOL of Children, and ( f) Being Present with an Open Heart: Ways to Maintain Hope and Minimize Emotional Distress. To date, this is the first study to focus on PC/EOL communication perspectives of novice pediatric oncology nurses.