[End-of-life decisions in seriously ill patients: the position of intensive care nurses]

Abstract

Intensive care units regularly have patients in whom a curative treatment plan is changed to palliative treatment. This does not only concern the medical and technical aspects, but also medical-ethical problems and questions relating to communication and organization. All these play a part in making a correct assessment. It is logical that nurses play an important part in this process as they have the most contact with the patient and his/her family. The optimalization of collaboration between doctors and nurses by means of the mutual exchange of information unique to each different discipline as well as acknowledging one another's talents and skills, forms the basis of good communication and organization concerning end-of-life decisions. It is useful to formalize this collaboration by means of multidisciplinary discussions.