title: "Where Withstanding is Difficult, and Deserting Even More": Head Nurses' Phenomenological Description of Intensive Care Units.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The intensive care unit is one of the specialized units in hospitals where head nurses are responsible for both motivating the personnel and providing high quality care. Understanding of the lived experiences of head nurses could help develop new assumptions of the ICU. The present study was therefore conducted to describe the lived experiences of head nurses working in ICU.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this phenomenological study, data were collected through unstructured in-depth interviews with 5 ICU head nurses in Northern Iran and then analyzed using 7 steps Colaizzi's method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Despite the "distressing atmosphere of the ICU", the "difficulty of managing the ICU" and the "difficulty of communication in the ICU", which encourages the "desire to leave the unit" among ICU head nurses, the "desire to stay in the unit" is stronger and head nurses are highly motivated to stay in the unit because the unit "develops a feeling of being extraordinary", "creates an interest in providing complicated care to special patients", "facilitates the spiritual bond", "develops a professional dynamism" and "creates an awareness about the nature of intensive care" among them.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  According to the result, ICU head nurses are still inclined to work in the unit and achieve success in spite of the problems that persist in working in the ICU. As the individuals' motivation can be the backbone of organizations, and given that individuals with a high enthusiasm for success are productive, hospital managers can take advantage of this strength in choosing their head nurses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Roghieh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nazari
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Zohre
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Vanaki
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Sima
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kermanshahi
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Ebrahim
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hajizadeh
keywords: Administrators; Head nurse; Intensive care unit; Qualitative research