The Most Important Question.

End-of-life (EOL) decision making in acute care often requires difficult conversations with and for family members. Planning that may seem clear and obvious to healthcare professionals can cause intense heartache and distress when a patient's needs and desires are not expressed. Nurses can play a significant role in facilitating communication among family members during the EOL.

Comforting Comes Full Circle.

Nurses' personal grief and loss experiences can enhance their ability to comfort family members of seriously ill and dying patients. Spiritual care in these situations can include empathy, listening, and sharing of Scripture, when appropriate. Additionally, caring for emotional needs of patients in critical care situations also may enable a nurse to resolve personal grief experiences.

Medical futility and end-of-life care: perspectives from practice. Coping with medical futility.

Advances in technology a nd medical knowledge have dramatically altered our ability to sustain life in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Many things come into play for the nurse when establishing patient goals, respecting patient's wishes, and valuing spiritual and cultural beliefs in end-of-life care. A veteran ICU nurse shares the challenges of caring and how, she copes when medical interventions seem futile.

Implementing a urinary tract infection clinical practice guideline in an ambulatory urgent care practice.

A clinical practice guideline for uncomplicated urinary tract infections in an ambulatory urgent care practice was implemented. Aims were to increase the number of first-line antibiotics prescribed to treat uncomplicated urinary tract infections, increase the use of second-line antibiotics prescribed when appropriate, and decrease the number of unnecessary urine cultures.