Clinicians frequently encounter and grapple with complex ethical issues and perplexing moral dilemmas in critical care settings. Intensive care unit (ICU) clinicians often experience moral distress in situations in which the ethically right course of action is intuitively known, but cannot be acted on. Most challenging cases pertain to end-of-life issues. Researchers have shown that moral distress and moral residue are common among critical care nurses. It is, therefore, essential that all ICU clinicians (and nurses, in particular) have an ongoing opportunity to work safely through these ethical dilemmas and conflicts. In this article, we describe the medical surgical intensive care unit (MSICU) experience with its monthly ethics initiative and explore the next steps to enhance its use through maximizing attendance and value to MSICU clinicians.
Read the publication: http://www.pubfacts.com/detail/22279847/Conversations-about-challenging-end-of-life-cases-ethics-debriefing-in-the-medical-surgical-intensiv