Lived experiences of intensive care nurses in caring for critically ill patients
Sunita Limbu1, Waraporn Kongsuwan1, Kantaporn Yodchai1
1Faculty of Nursing, Prince of Songkla University, Hatyai, Thailand.
Background:
Caring for critically ill patients requires competent nurses to help save and secure the lives of patients, using technological developments while maintaining humanistic care. Nepal is a developing country with limited advanced technologies and resources. It is important to understand nursing care for critically ill patients under these shortages.
Aim:
To describe the lived experiences of intensive care nurses in caring for critically ill patients in intensive care units.
Methods:
A hermeneutic phenomenological study was conducted. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 13 nurses from three intensive care units, who met the inclusion criteria. Face-to-face, in-depth individual interviews with an audio recorder were used to collect the data. The interview transcriptions were analysed and interpreted using van Manen's approach. Trustworthiness was established following the criteria of Lincoln and Guba.
Findings:
Seven thematic categories emerged from the experiences of nurses and were reflected within the four life worlds of space, body, relation and time. The categories were: low technology of care and insufficient resources (lived space); physical and psychological distress and requiring competency in caring (lived body); connecting relationship as a family, trusting technology of care, and realizing team working (lived relation); and less time to be with the patient as a whole person (lived time).
Conclusions:
This study provides an understanding of the lived experience of nurses caring for critically ill patients, with inadequate support that can affect holistic care of patients and nurses' health.
Relevance To Clinical Practice:
Intensive care nurses need to enhance their knowledge and skills related to the use of technologies and patient care by attending training programs and gaining further education. This study recommends that hospital administrators should support sufficient facilities and technologies of care and, in particular, increase the competency of nurses in caring for critically ill patients as the whole person.
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