title: Therapeutic futility as an ethical issue: intensive care unit nurses.
abstract: Therapeutic futility in intensive care units (ICUs) is still little discussed among nursing professionals responsible for implementing prescribed procedures, which they might disagree on. Therefore, interviews were carried out with ICU nurses to understand how they are coping with the implementation of futile treatments. Based on the analysis of collected data, the following categories emerged: therapeutic futility: what is it?; therapeutic futility extends suffering; therapeutic futility with healing as a priority; coping with therapeutic futility: humanized care? The study indicates the need to evaluate therapeutic measures provided to terminal patients with a view to improving their quality of life in this final phase. When healing is no longer possible, care is necessary with a view to respecting the sick person's integrity because care is the essence of the nursing profession.
authors: Hospital Universitário Dr. Miguel Riet Corrêa Jr, Fundação Universidade do Rio Grande, Brazil. knoppcarvalho@bol.com.br
authors: Karen Knopp
authors: KK
authors: de Carvalho
authors: Valéria Lerch
authors: VL
authors: Lunardi
mesh_terms: D004993:Ethics, Nursing; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D018447:Medical Futility / Q000941:ethics*