The role of ICU nurses in the spiritual aspects of end-of-life care in the ICU: an explorative study

Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the role and responsibilities of intensive care unit (ICU) nurses regarding the spiritual aspects of end-of-life care in the ICU, from the chaplains' perspectives.

Method: An explorative study including inductive thematic analysis was used. Two focus group interviews with in total eleven chaplains working in several Dutch ICUs were performed.

Results: The focus group interviews resulted in five themes: (i) awareness of ICU nurses, (ii) communication, (iii) nursing interventions, (iv) multidisciplinary care and (v) education. In total, twenty recommendations were formulated.

Conclusions: This explorative study provides an overview of the perspectives of chaplains about the role of ICU nurses during end-of-life care, specified to spiritual care. Chaplains mentioned different roles, responsibilities and competences which are needed for ICU nurses to give spiritual care. These roles, responsibilities and competences included giving spiritual care to patients and families as standard care. Chaplains agreed that ICU nurses should start and maintain a dialogue with patient and families, but that it is also important to be aware of one's own spiritual background. However, education about spiritual care is needed to establish this. It could be recommended to educate ICU nurses during their ICU training or retraining about spiritual care and reflection.