NICU Nurses' Suggestions for Improving Obstacles in End-of-Life Care

• Main Author: Isaacson, Rebecca Faye
• Format: Others
• Published: BYU ScholarsArchive 2018
• Subjects: End-of-Life; NICU; obstacles; helps; perceptions; NICU nurses; Nursing
• Online Access: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/7297; https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8297&context=etd

Background: Approximately 25,000 pediatric deaths occur in hospitals in the United States each year with over 50% of these deaths occurring in Newborn Intensive Care Units (NICU). NICU nurses are frequently involved in end-of-life (EOL) care and face unique obstacles. Objective: The objective of this study was to obtain NICU nurses suggestions for improving obstacles in EOL care in NICUs. Methods: Suggestions were obtained through mailed survey research in qualitative study design. Returned surveys yielded 121 nurse respondents who gave a total of 138 suggestions.Results: A total of 10 cohesive themes were identified: (1) environmental design issues, (2) improved communication between healthcare teams, (3) ending futile care earlier, (4) realistic and honest physician communications to families, (5) providing a œgood death, (6) improved nurse staffing, (7) need for EOL education, (8) earlier entry into hospice/palliative care, (9) availability of ancillary staff, and (10) allowing parents more time to prepare for death.Conclusions: Despite the variety of obstacles encountered in providing EOL care to dying infants and their families, NICU nurses can use self-assessment tools to identify obstacles to EOL care and collaborate with key members of the healthcare team to alleviate these obstacles.