Opinions of nurses on the ethical problems encountered while working as a team in intensive care units

Abstract

Background The intensive care unit entails working as a team in rescuing patients from life-threatening conditions. The care being given by the team could also be done by nurses and other health professionals through the coordinated use of all medical practices. Objective To determine the opinion of nurses on the ethical problems they experienced while working as a team in the intensive care units of a university hospital. Method The descriptive research was conducted on nurses working in intensive care units (n = 96). A 56-item data collection form consisting of two parts developed by the researchers was used. Frequency (percent) and median were evaluated, and statistical calculations were used for group comparisons. Results Out of the 82 (85.4%) nurses who participated in the study, 65 (82.3%) were university graduates. About 52 (66.7%) of the participants were female with a mean age of 28.12 ± 5.84; 26 (31.6%) had intensive care certification, and 54 (65.1%) had ethical training. The internal intensive care unit nurses were less satisfied with their jobs, able to use tools, said that they had the right to refuse the patient compared to the surgical intensive care unit nurses. Discussion and conclusions: It is a positive situation for the participants to score low with ethical problems based on suggestion as the probability of meeting with their teammates. However, it is important that the problems that affect the motivation of the nurses are different according to the intensive care unit and the employees.