title: Critical care nurses' attitude towards life-sustaining treatments in South East Iran.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Life-sustaining treatments (LSTs) may prolong life but greatly decrease the quality of death. One factor influencing decision-making about withholding and withdrawing these treatments is the attitude of nurses. This study aimed to evaluate the attitude of critical care nurses towards life-sustaining treatments in South East Iran.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this cross-sectional study, "Ethnicity and Attitudes towards Advance Care Directives Questionnaire" was used to investigate the attitude of 104 critical care nurses towards life-sustaining treatments in three hospitals affiliated to Kerman University of Medical Sciences.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The findings of this study indicated that although a majority of critical care nurses (77%) did not have personal desire for use of LSTs including CPR and mechanical ventilation, they had moderately negative to neutral attitude towards general use of LSTs (2.95 of 5).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings suggest that nurses' attitude towards LSTs can be changed by inclusion of specific courses about death, palliative care and life-sustaining treatments in undergraduate and postgraduate nursing curricula. Educating Muslim nurses about religious aspects of LSTs may also improve their attitudes.
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Farideh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Razban
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Midwifery, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Sedigheh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Iranmanesh
authors.affiliation: Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran.
authors.forename: Hasan Eslami
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Aliabadi
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Mansooreh Azzizadeh
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Forouzi
keywords: Attitude; Critical care nurse; Life-sustaining treatments; South East Iran