Nurses' perception of obstacles and supportive behaviors in providing end of life care to critically ill pediatric patients

Abstract

Pediatric critical care nurses care for dying children 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 in pediatric intensive care units is limited. So, this descriptive research design aimed to describe pediatric critical care nurses’ perceptions of obstacles to provide end-of-life care and supportive behaviors that help in providing end-of life care in the intensive care units. The study concluded that the most supportive behaviors in providing end- of- life care to critically ill pediatric patients that perceived by nurses were, nurses scheduled so that child receives continuity of care and physicians agreeing about direction of child care while the most obstacles behaviors in providing end- of- life care were, child having pain that is difficult to control or alleviate, nurse too busy offering life saving measures to provide quality end of life care and family continually calls the nurse for update rather than the designated contact person. The study recommended that future researches are needed to identify and implement ways to decrease highly perceived obstacles and to continue to support highly perceived supportive behaviors. Furthermore, differences between ICU and non-ICU staff members’ perceptions of end-of-life care are needed to be studied.

Key Wards: Perception, obstacles, supportive behaviors, end of life care, critically ill, children