Korean J Adult Nurs.  2023 Feb;35(1):47-60. 10.7475/kjan.2023.35.1.47.

Factors Influencing Performance of End-of-Life Care by ICU Nurses: A Descriptive Survey Study

• Lim GS
• Yoo YG

• KMID: 2540053
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.7475/kjan.2023.35.1.47

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this descriptive survey study was to investigate the relationship between death awareness, life-sustaining nursing stress, end-of-life care competency and performance, and resilience. Additionally, the factors influencing end-of-life care performance by ICU nurses were identified.
Methods
Data were collected from one tertiary and two general hospitals in J province from July 1 to July 30, 2022. Nurses working in Intensive Care Units (ICU) for more than three months who had experience in end-of-life care were selected through convenience sampling. A total of 188 responses to the survey were included in the final analysis. An IBM SPSS program was used for the data analysis.
Results
Factors impacting end-of-life care performance (with an explanatory power of 31.9%) were as follows: higher knowledge and behavioral competency in end-of-life care, higher relational patterns in resilience, higher levels of death positivity in death awareness, and clinical experience of less than a year compared to that of three to five years were associated with higher end-of-life care performance.
Conclusion
These findings point to the urgent need for increasing end-of-life care performance among nurses in clinical practice; therefore, practical strategies must be developed and actively implemented to strengthen relevant competencies and resilience and promote death positivity. Based on these findings, future studies are needed to develop an intervention program to improve the spiritual scope of end-of-life care and verify the effects.

Keyword

Terminal care; Intensive care units; Nurses