The aim of this study was to assess attitudes of intensive care nurses to selected ethical issues related to end-of-life decisions in paediatric intensive care units. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed in 2005 to intensive care nurses at two different scientific occasions in Turkey. Of the 155 intensive care nurse participants, 98% were women. Fifty-three percent of these had int...

Clinicians treating critically ill patients must consider the possibility that painful and expensive aggressive treatments might confer negligible benefit. Such treatments are often described as futile or inappropriate. We discuss the problem of deciding whether to initiate renal replacement therapy (RRT) for critically ill patients with acute kidney injury (AKI) in the context of the debate su...

AIMS To determine the extent of futile care provided to critically ill children admitted to a paediatric intensive care setting. METHODS Prospective evaluation of consecutive admissions to a 20 bedded multidisciplinary paediatric intensive care unit of a North London teaching hospital over a nine month period. Three previously defined criteria for futility were used: (1) imminent demise futil...

BACKGROUND Making decision about what kind of caring is entitled as futile care requires the presentation of a clear definition of such caretaking. OBJECTIVE To report an analysis of the concept of futile care. DESIGN The analysis in this research was carried out through hybrid model in three stages. At the theoretical stage:  a review of the available literature. At the work-in-field stage...

despite a lot of efforts and investigations worldwide, dnr is still a controversial issue in many countries. in iran although significant achievements are reached in different fields; end of life care is hardly considered as a scientific necessity. development and implementation of clear policies for dnr orders is required to prevent futile prolongation of death, psychological stress to the pat...