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End-of-Life Decisions in Intensive Care Units in Croatia—Pre COVID-19 Perspectives and Experiences From Nurses and Physicians

Healthcare professionals working in intensive care units (ICUs) are often involved in end-of-life decision-making. No research has been done so far about these processes taking place in Croatian ICUs. The aim of this study was to investigate the perceptions, experiences, and challenges healthcare pr...

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Autores principales: Ćurković, Marko, Brajković, Lovorka, Jozepović, Ana, Tonković, Dinko, Župan, Željko, Karanović, Nenad, Borovečki, Ana
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Singapore 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8459337/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34554388
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11673-021-10128-w
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author Ćurković, Marko
Brajković, Lovorka
Jozepović, Ana
Tonković, Dinko
Župan, Željko
Karanović, Nenad
Borovečki, Ana
author_facet Ćurković, Marko
Brajković, Lovorka
Jozepović, Ana
Tonković, Dinko
Župan, Željko
Karanović, Nenad
Borovečki, Ana
author_sort Ćurković, Marko
collection PubMed
description Healthcare professionals working in intensive care units (ICUs) are often involved in end-of-life decision-making. No research has been done so far about these processes taking place in Croatian ICUs. The aim of this study was to investigate the perceptions, experiences, and challenges healthcare professionals face when dealing with end-of-life decisions in ICUs in Croatia. A qualitative study was performed using professionally homogenous focus groups of ICU nurses and physicians (45 in total) of diverse professional and clinical backgrounds at three research sites (Zagreb, Rijeka, Split). In total, six institutions at the tertiary level of healthcare were included. The constant comparative analysis method was used in the analysis of the data. Differences were found between the perceptions and experiences of nurses and physicians in relation to end-of-life decisions. Nurses’ perceptions were more focused on the context and features of immediate care, while physicians’ perceptions also included the wider sociocultural context. However, the critical issues these specific professional groups face when dealing with end-of-life decisions seem to overlap. A high variability of practices, both between individual practitioners and between different organizational units, was omnipresent. The lack of adequate legal, professional, and clinical guidelines was commonly expressed as one of the most critical source of difficulties.
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spelling pubmed-84593372021-09-23 End-of-Life Decisions in Intensive Care Units in Croatia—Pre COVID-19 Perspectives and Experiences From Nurses and Physicians Ćurković, Marko Brajković, Lovorka Jozepović, Ana Tonković, Dinko Župan, Željko Karanović, Nenad Borovečki, Ana J Bioeth Inq Original Research Healthcare professionals working in intensive care units (ICUs) are often involved in end-of-life decision-making. No research has been done so far about these processes taking place in Croatian ICUs. The aim of this study was to investigate the perceptions, experiences, and challenges healthcare professionals face when dealing with end-of-life decisions in ICUs in Croatia. A qualitative study was performed using professionally homogenous focus groups of ICU nurses and physicians (45 in total) of diverse professional and clinical backgrounds at three research sites (Zagreb, Rijeka, Split). In total, six institutions at the tertiary level of healthcare were included. The constant comparative analysis method was used in the analysis of the data. Differences were found between the perceptions and experiences of nurses and physicians in relation to end-of-life decisions. Nurses’ perceptions were more focused on the context and features of immediate care, while physicians’ perceptions also included the wider sociocultural context. However, the critical issues these specific professional groups face when dealing with end-of-life decisions seem to overlap. A high variability of practices, both between individual practitioners and between different organizational units, was omnipresent. The lack of adequate legal, professional, and clinical guidelines was commonly expressed as one of the most critical source of difficulties. Springer Singapore 2021-09-23 2021 /pmc/articles/PMC8459337/ /pubmed/34554388 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11673-021-10128-w Text en © Journal of Bioethical Inquiry Pty Ltd. 2021 This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.
spellingShingle Original Research
Ćurković, Marko
Brajković, Lovorka
Jozepović, Ana
Tonković, Dinko
Župan, Željko
Karanović, Nenad
Borovečki, Ana
End-of-Life Decisions in Intensive Care Units in Croatia—Pre COVID-19 Perspectives and Experiences From Nurses and Physicians
title End-of-Life Decisions in Intensive Care Units in Croatia—Pre COVID-19 Perspectives and Experiences From Nurses and Physicians
title_full End-of-Life Decisions in Intensive Care Units in Croatia—Pre COVID-19 Perspectives and Experiences From Nurses and Physicians
title_fullStr End-of-Life Decisions in Intensive Care Units in Croatia—Pre COVID-19 Perspectives and Experiences From Nurses and Physicians
title_full_unstemmed End-of-Life Decisions in Intensive Care Units in Croatia—Pre COVID-19 Perspectives and Experiences From Nurses and Physicians
title_short End-of-Life Decisions in Intensive Care Units in Croatia—Pre COVID-19 Perspectives and Experiences From Nurses and Physicians
title_sort end-of-life decisions in intensive care units in croatia—pre covid-19 perspectives and experiences from nurses and physicians
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8459337/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34554388
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11673-021-10128-w
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