“It Kills Your Soul”: A Mixed Methods Study of Ethical Sensitivity of Critical Care Nurses

Background: Critically ill patients often experience distressful and impactful symptoms and conditions that include pain, agitation/sedation, delirium, immobility, and sleep disturbances (PADIS). The presence of PADIS can affect recovery and long-term patient outcomes. An integral part of critical care nursing is PADIS prevention, assessment, and management. Ethical sensitivity of everyday nursing practice related to PADIS is an imperative part of implementing evidence-based care for patients. Objective: The first 2 aims of this study were to determine the measured level of ethical awareness as an attribute of ethical sensitivity among the critical care nurse participants and to explore the ethical sensitivity of critical care nurses related to the implementation of PADIS care. The third aim was to examine how the measured level of ethical awareness and ethical sensitivity exploration results converge, diverge, and/or relate to each other to produce a more complete understanding of PADIS ethical sensitivity by critical care nurses. Methods: This was a convergent parallel mixed methods study (QUAL + quant). Ethical sensitivity was explored by conducting an ethnography of critical care nurses. The participants were 19 critical care nurses who were observed during patient care, interviewed individually, participated in a focus group (QUAL), and were administered the Ethical Awareness Scale (quant). Findings: Despite high levels of individual ethical awareness among nurses, themes of ambiguous beneficence, heedless autonomy, and moral distress were found to be related to PADIS care. Conclusions: More effort is needed to establish moral community, ethical leadership, and individual ethical guidance for nurses to establish patient-centered decision-making and PADIS care.