Failing to do the right thing: nurse practice and the family experience

Ethical end of life decisions are increasingly viewed by the global healthcare community as complex and imbued with uncertainty in institutional healthcare settings. Each person experiences health decision-making and the concept of time differently and uniquely. In the context of end of life situations, both the recipients of healthcare and their families may experience complex decision-making in situations where profound questioning and uncertainty surfaces with a struggling of desiring to do the right thing comingling with the possibilities of failing to do the right thing according to the expectations of self and others. This column begins a discussion of possible meanings found in ethical decision-making with families as articulated with the lens of the humanbecoming family model.