Abstract

Nurses working in emergency departments (EDs) of trauma centers are integral members of the trauma team during the initial resuscitation of severely injured patients. Decisions regarding these resuscitations are made in high stress environments and are inevitably rife with ethical issues due to the high frequency and severity of injury and its exorbitant costs to society. These decisions are made with little background knowledge about the patients during a complex process of rapid assessment of physiological status overlaid by ethical principles, societal norms and expectations, and legal mandates. The purpose of this study was to assess the specific ethical issues that ED nurses encounter and their effects during the resuscitation of severely injured patients, the factors contributing to the decisions made during resuscitation, and how nurses are involved in these decisions.

Description

This dissertation has also been disseminated through the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Dissertation/thesis number: 3381887; ProQuest document ID: 304979280. The author still retains copyright.

Author Details

Mindy B. Zeitzer, PhD, MBE, RN, CNE

Sigma Membership

Xi Mu

Type

Dissertation

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Descriptive/Correlational

Research Approach

Qualitative Research

Keywords:

Moral Distress, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, Emergency Medical Care

Advisor

Connie M. Ulrich

Second Advisor

Therese S. Richmond

Third Advisor

Christine K. Bradway

Degree

PhD

Degree Grantor

University of Pennsylvania

Degree Year

2009

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

None: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

Date of Issue

2022-09-06

Full Text of Presentation

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