Casuistry, care, compassion, and ethics data analysis

Traditional approaches to descriptive ethics data analysis do not explicate the nature of ethical dilemmas in critical care and emergency nursing. Using sensitizing concepts of causes of nurse compassion, 168 stories of ethical dilemmas were categorized. They were analyzed from the theoretical perspective of an ethic of care using casuistry. Paradigm cases for each sensitizing concept were constructed. The nature of ethical dilemmas is in the disparity between actual and ideal nursing practice.