The Experience of Nurses’ Moral Dilemma in Intensive Care Unit: A Qualitative Study / 中国医学伦理学

ABSTRACT

【Objective:】 To understand the true experience and feelings of nurses in the intensive care unit on the clinical experience of moral dilemmas, and to provide strategies for reducing the impact of moral dilemmas. 【Methods:】 Thirteen nurses in the intensive care unit were interviewed face to face by descriptive nature research method. The traditional content analysis method were used to compute the data, and the coding, categorization and topic extraction were carried out cyclically until the data were saturated and the interview was stopped. 【Results:】 The moral dilemma experience of nurses in the intensive care unit had the following three themes negative psychological experience, negative behavior experience, and life and death cognitive experience. 【Conclusion:】 Nurses in the intensive care unit will have complex negative experiences after experiencing moral dilemmas. This negative experience threatens nurses’ mental health. Nursing managers should pay attention to the impact of moral dilemmas on nurses and formulate effective measures, thereby ensure nursing safety and maintain the healthy development of the nursing team.