Ethics and End-of-Life Care in the ICU: Principles and Practice

Activity Summary

Conflicting values can make providing critical care extremely challenging in emotionally charged end-of-life situations. We review core ethical concepts and evidence-based recommendations for early identification of ethical concerns and discuss how to apply them in complex end-of-life cases. Moral distress, its effects on nurses, and strategies to mitigate it are explored.

Objectives

Relate ethical concepts and evidence-based recommendations for early intervention in complex patient situations at the end of life.
Describe how moral distress can affect nurses and other healthcare providers and list at least three actions to minimize moral distress.
Apply evidence to minimize conflict among providers/patients/families while respecting one another’s values and professional duties.

Continuing Education Disclosure Statement

Criteria for Awarding Contact Hours

Learners must complete the entire activity and the associated evaluation AND read Implicit Bias impacts patient outcomes. No partial credit will be awarded.

Accreditation

American Association of Critical-Care Nurses is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.
Provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider number CEP 1036, for {contactHours} contact hours.

Disclosures

The Nurse Planner has determined that no individuals with the ability to control content of this activity have relevant relationships with ineligible companies.

Activities with pharmacotherapeutic credit are to assist the APRN in fulfilling their education requirements for licensure and certification renewals.

Refund Policy

Continuing Education Activities are nonrefundable.