Nurses’ autonomy in end-of-life situations in intensive care units

Background:The intensive care unit environment focuses on interventions and support therapies that prolong life. The exercise by nurses of their autonomy impacts on perception of the role they assume in the multidisciplinary team and on their function in the intensive care unit context. There is much international research relating to nurses’ involvement in end-of-life situations; however, there is a paucity of research in this area in Brazil. In the Brazilian medical scenario, life support limitation generated a certain reluctance of a legal nature, which has now become unjustifiable with the publication of a resolution by the Federal Medical Council. In Brazil, the lack of medical commitments to end-of-life care is evident.Objective:To understand the process by which nurses exercise autonomy in making end-of-life decisions in intensive care units.Research design:Symbolic Interactionism and Corbin and Strauss theory methodology were used for this study.Participants and research context:Data were collecte...