The brain-dead pregnant woman: finding meaning to help cope

Caring for brain-dead pregnant women is a new critical care challenge. Rather than the usual life/death situations involving catastrophic events, critical care nurses have the added burden of caring for a life in suspension to maintain the viability of the fetus. Nurses struggle with keeping the brain-dead patient alive and yet know that as soon as the infant is delivered the mother will be allowed to die. These authors use interviews with clinical nurses to show how they used the coping strategy of creating meaning to successfully cope with this difficult situation.