Phenomenon 1: ICU nurses work in a high-pressure environment (cause)
The ICU’s context, a high-pressure environment, affects not only the work that a nurse performs in the unit,
but also other clinical aspects related to the patient, the nurse’s interactions with other professionals, and the
role played by the family in new treatments.
Nurses see the rules of the ICU as possibilities or controls to help them care for patients. These rules,
which are constructed over time, are tied to the interactions and decisions of a multidisciplinary team and
are molded in a continuous way by health professionals, patients, and families. An environment with predetermined
rules can facilitate or interfere with the decisions that a professional makes: the rules function as
charms that help them feel strong enough to act:
[ ... ] in a shift, a nurse thinks she has to do [ ... ] in some way, introduce a care [activity], do the things she understands
are necessary but for whatever reason she cannot do it. So, I think that they decide to center everything on
the doctor ... only with authorization. (7.4—recruited from private hospital)
Issues surrounding advanced life support reflect one way in which nurses must understand a new form of
care. Intensive care valorizes the benefits of medical behaviors and interventions for patients. Each patient
Paganini and Bousso 807
in the ICU is classified according to the seriousness of his or her condition, and the care team must follow a
prognostic classification system to determine the conduct and care that should be adopted:
Sometimes, they have already tried everything, and he (the patient) is suffering. There are many factors that tell
you whether or not the patient is viable. Sometimes, they don’t know the situation; it could be a ‘‘super’’ tumor,
and they are still treating it. I ask myself how far they (the doctors) are going to go, how long are they going to
keep treating (the patient)? (1.7—recruited from public hospital)
Nurses identify the changes to EOLC and recognize that decisions previously defined in a paternalistic
and authoritarian manner by the doctors now require not only their positioning but also the desires and decisions
of the patients and their families.
Nurses described themselves as evaluating the patient’s clinical condition, i.e. seriousness and repercussions
of their physiopathological condition, to adjust the care plan and to prepare for the decisions
that need to be made:
[ ... ] you have to keep your eyes peeled, you need to know what care you need to give. I always examine all the
patients, as well, so I can keep track of how they are, get to know them, make my own decisions. (10.12—
recruited from private hospital)
When caring for a patient in a critical state, nurses establish a direct and intense relationship with the
family. They identity with the suffering, apprehension, and perplexity of a family that has someone in the
ICU. Nurses know that families can fall apart because they do not know how to deal with the EOL process or
how they should behave. The statement presented below represents one nurse’s view:
We nurses still do not talk about the end-of-life. It seems like we give information about care, but we don’t say
anything that could lead to questions about the procedures or whether the patient is ‘‘dying.’’ (2.8—recruited
from public hospital)
Phenomenon 1: ICU nurses work in a high-pressure environment (cause)The ICU’s context, a high-pressure environment, affects not only the work that a nurse performs in the unit,but also other clinical aspects related to the patient, the nurse’s interactions with other professionals, and therole played by the family in new treatments.Nurses see the rules of the ICU as possibilities or controls to help them care for patients. These rules,which are constructed over time, are tied to the interactions and decisions of a multidisciplinary team andare molded in a continuous way by health professionals, patients, and families. An environment with predeterminedrules can facilitate or interfere with the decisions that a professional makes: the rules function ascharms that help them feel strong enough to act:[ ... ] in a shift, a nurse thinks she has to do [ ... ] in some way, introduce a care [activity], do the things she understandsare necessary but for whatever reason she cannot do it. So, I think that they decide to center everything onthe doctor ... only with authorization. (7.4—recruited from private hospital)Issues surrounding advanced life support reflect one way in which nurses must understand a new form ofcare. Intensive care valorizes the benefits of medical behaviors and interventions for patients. Each patientPaganini and Bousso 807in the ICU is classified according to the seriousness of his or her condition, and the care team must follow aprognostic classification system to determine the conduct and care that should be adopted:Sometimes, they have already tried everything, and he (the patient) is suffering. There are many factors that tellyou whether or not the patient is viable. Sometimes, they don’t know the situation; it could be a ‘‘super’’ tumor,and they are still treating it. I ask myself how far they (the doctors) are going to go, how long are they going tokeep treating (the patient)? (1.7—recruited from public hospital)Nurses identify the changes to EOLC and recognize that decisions previously defined in a paternalisticand authoritarian manner by the doctors now require not only their positioning but also the desires and decisionsof the patients and their families.Nurses described themselves as evaluating the patient’s clinical condition, i.e. seriousness and repercussionsof their physiopathological condition, to adjust the care plan and to prepare for the decisionsthat need to be made:[ ... ] you have to keep your eyes peeled, you need to know what care you need to give. I always examine all thepatients, as well, so I can keep track of how they are, get to know them, make my own decisions. (10.12—recruited from private hospital)When caring for a patient in a critical state, nurses establish a direct and intense relationship with thefamily. They identity with the suffering, apprehension, and perplexity of a family that has someone in theICU. Nurses know that families can fall apart because they do not know how to deal with the EOL process orhow they should behave. The statement presented below represents one nurse’s view:We nurses still do not talk about the end-of-life. It seems like we give information about care, but we don’t sayanything that could lead to questions about the procedures or whether the patient is ‘‘dying.’’ (2.8—recruitedfrom public hospital)
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