Advanced medical treatment can lead to ethical problems regarding the dying patient in the intensive care unit. To meet this challenge by integration of principles from palliative care into intensive care, depends upon the intensive care nurses. The aim of this study is to explore how the phenomenon of a good death in intensive care units appears in the life of intensive care nurses.
Data from in-depth interviews with six intensive care nurses from units at two major Norwegian hospitals were analyzed by Giorgis fenomenological method and further interpreted in the discussion, which indicates an fenomenological-hermeneutic approach.
The good death is described by four categories. It depends on the quality of the relations; — Being in the world together. A general palliative approach is important; — Palliation. When the treatment is terminated, the nurses aim at creating a space of silent ceremony that is devoid of technical elements, — The natural and sacred room. The nurses' personal experience is also a decisive factor behind the good death; — Being in death together. The fifth category found in the study, When the patient is not allowed to die, describes the nurses' experiences of what is not a good death. The empirical description reflects the intensive care nurse's professional experience, which includes meaning-producing strategies that aim at re-establishing and maintaining the coherence and flow of our life-world.
The knowledge from this study creates consciousness among the nursing practitioners about their activity and values. It may represent a foundation for ethical development and integration of a comprehensive palliative approach into intensive care units.
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