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Different ways of thinking about patients in critical care: an ethnographic study

Different ways of thinking about patients in critical care: an ethnographic study
Different ways of thinking about patients in critical care: an ethnographic study
Nursing is argued to have a characteristic focus on the whole person (Royal College of Nursing 2003), yet it is known that critical care nurses may experience moral distress arising from the difficulty they experience in thinking about patients as persons ( Lawrence 2011). This paper presents findings from an ethnographic study undertaken within one critical care unit in the United Kingdom which examined how critical care nurses do think about patients.

Data were collected through participant observation and interview over a period of 8 months during 2006 to 2007. Seven critical care nurses participated in the study. Data analysis adopted the perspective of linguistic ethnography.

Participants thought about patients in seven ways, each of which was associated with a pattern of nursing practice that was essential to the delivery of safe and effective care. Despite the essential role played by these patterns of practice, critical care nurses themselves characterised it as ‘impersonal’ and not ‘nursey’ to think about patients as ‘routine work’, as a ‘set of needs’, as a ‘body’, as ‘(un)stable’ or as a ‘medical case’. Participants therefore struggled to describe, reflect upon or celebrate the practice associated with these ways of thinking.

These findings reveal a dissonance between the expectation that nurses should think about patients as persons, and the fact that critical care nurses are required to think about patients in many ways. This is a potential source of distress to critical care nurses, and is of wider significance given that emotional exhaustion and burnout can arise from disparity between nurses’ ideals and the realities of care (Maben et al. 2007). It is concluded that nursing leaders, scholars and policy makers must recognise and legitimise the fact that that nurses think about patients in many different ways

McLean, C.
04c1b951-0f57-4d2e-a910-ea814c785166
McLean, C.
04c1b951-0f57-4d2e-a910-ea814c785166

McLean, C. (2014) Different ways of thinking about patients in critical care: an ethnographic study. British Association of Critical Care Nurses Annual Conference, Cardiff, United Kingdom. (doi:10.13140/2.1.3181.6963).

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

Nursing is argued to have a characteristic focus on the whole person (Royal College of Nursing 2003), yet it is known that critical care nurses may experience moral distress arising from the difficulty they experience in thinking about patients as persons ( Lawrence 2011). This paper presents findings from an ethnographic study undertaken within one critical care unit in the United Kingdom which examined how critical care nurses do think about patients.

Data were collected through participant observation and interview over a period of 8 months during 2006 to 2007. Seven critical care nurses participated in the study. Data analysis adopted the perspective of linguistic ethnography.

Participants thought about patients in seven ways, each of which was associated with a pattern of nursing practice that was essential to the delivery of safe and effective care. Despite the essential role played by these patterns of practice, critical care nurses themselves characterised it as ‘impersonal’ and not ‘nursey’ to think about patients as ‘routine work’, as a ‘set of needs’, as a ‘body’, as ‘(un)stable’ or as a ‘medical case’. Participants therefore struggled to describe, reflect upon or celebrate the practice associated with these ways of thinking.

These findings reveal a dissonance between the expectation that nurses should think about patients as persons, and the fact that critical care nurses are required to think about patients in many ways. This is a potential source of distress to critical care nurses, and is of wider significance given that emotional exhaustion and burnout can arise from disparity between nurses’ ideals and the realities of care (Maben et al. 2007). It is concluded that nursing leaders, scholars and policy makers must recognise and legitimise the fact that that nurses think about patients in many different ways

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More information

Published date: 8 September 2014
Venue - Dates: British Association of Critical Care Nurses Annual Conference, Cardiff, United Kingdom, 2014-09-08
Organisations: Faculty of Health Sciences

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 369636
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/369636
PURE UUID: 6de0b2c4-db6c-4d58-a6b0-713f35be8dd5
ORCID for C. McLean: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-9951-9894

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Date deposited: 16 Oct 2014 10:55
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:15

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