Critical care nursing update: ethical considerations & the role of family in the ICU

Ethical challenges are part of everyday ICU nursing — particularly when family views conflict with clinical decisions or cultural and religious beliefs influence patient management or end-of-life care. In this final session of the Critical Care Nursing Update Series, we’ll explore how to manage complex ethical situations, and support families during difficult decision-making about the care of their loved ones.

Why you should attend

Critical care is a uniquely complex setting for ethical decision-making. Life-sustaining treatments, sudden deterioration, and unconscious patients mean decisions regularly need to be made on behalf of others - often under time pressures. Common dilemmas include:

• continuing or withdrawing life sustaining treatment 

• disagreements between family members and treating teams

• balancing resource allocation and patient needs

• managing patients with no advance care directives or substitute decision maker

ICU nurses are a constant presence at the bedside. We advocate, interpret, witness suffering, and support families during some of the hardest decisions of their lives. Our bedside care includes a clinical, compassionate, and empathetic approach to ethical decision making. There is often conflict between decision-makers; nurses are commonly the go-between or advocates in these situations. These complexities will be discussed during the interactive case-based webinar focussing on:

• The dilemma of continuing futile life-sustaining care in the ICU

• Family conflict over withdrawal of care and treatment options

• Cultural and religious considerations in ethical decisions

• Communication breakdowns in ethically complex cases

This is a Medcast Continuing Medical Education (CME) course.