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Updated: Jul 8, 2026

Using Visual and Narrative Methods to Achieve Fair Process in Clinical Care
Published on: February 16, 2011
The feelings nurses and patients/families experience when faced with the need to make bioethical decisions
1School of Nursing, Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Abstract:
This study investigates the experience of nurses and patients/families who have been personally involved in bioethical decision making and their consequent reflections on their feelings regarding the decision-making process. The method used was phenomenological. The subjects were 15 nurses, 5 patients, and 11 family members. The analysis of data resulted in 10 themes for each group. For the most part, the experience was a negative one that left the participants feeling frustrated and powerless. The themes have been used to create two visual analog scales (one for the patient and one for the patient/family). The tool is already being pilot tested.
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