Ethical dilemmas faced by nurses regarding no resuscitate orders

Abstract

This is an exploratory qualitative research carried out in an Adult Emergency and Urgency Unit of a school-hospital in the city of Curitiba from September to October 2009, with the participation of 15 nurses. The objective was to analyze the nurses’ perception and the action in case of a no-resuscitate order (NRO). The data were collected through recorded individual non-structured interview and the thematic analysis offered the possibility to find three topics, which will be discussed: The NRO as an ethic dilemma and the participation of the nurse in the decision-making. It was observed that most nurses, who took part on the research, agreed with the orthonasia, however, the most experienced ethic dilemma in practice is the dysthanasia. Regarding to the NRO decision-making, all the interviewed nurses affirmed that, in spite of not having effective and straight participation, since they have enough technical-scientific knowledge to opine on the team they have several times questioned the medical decision regarding the choice of a best therapeutic plan to be adopted. Thus, it is necessary an awareness work about the importance of participation of nurses in decision making of resuscitate or not.