Nursing diagnosis. Powerlessness in critical care patients

The critical care environment, with its fast-paced tempo, its vast technology, and its many invasive procedures, carries the potential for creating feelings of powerlessness within patients, their families, and even in the nurses who work there. This article examines the nursing diagnosis of powerlessness and its etiologic factors. The authors present a challenging case in which creative nursing techniques decrease powerlessness for a partially paralyzed and intubated patient.