title: Critical care nurses' lived experience of unsuccessful resuscitation.
abstract: Although approximately 58% of patients in critical care units die despite resuscitation efforts, the experience of nurses who participate in unsuccessful patient resuscitation has been largely unexamined. The article is a description of a phenomenological research study designed to investigate this experience. Nine nurses employed in cardiac or intensive care units of a tertiary care hospital participated in the study by contributing paradigm narratives concerning unsuccessful patient resuscitation. The lived experience of unsuccessful resuscitation was described by the participants as one in which they fortified themselves for the emotional consequences and sense of loss associated with this experience while establishing a connectedness with the patient and his/her significant others.
authors.affiliation: Critical Care Program, Specialty Nursing Programs, British Columbia Institute of Technology, Burnaby.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Isaak
authors.forename: B L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Paterson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003422:Critical Care / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology*; D012151:Resuscitation; D017211:Treatment Failure