Caring for Patients With Intractable Neurological Diseases

This is a qualitative descriptive study examining nurses’ attitudesabout caring for patients with intractable neurological diseases, with a focus ondedication and conflicts. Semistructured interviews were conducted on 11 nurses withmore than 5 years of clinical experience in addition to more than 3 years of experiencein neurology wards. Senior nursing officers from each hospital selected theparticipants. In general, these nurses expressed distress over the inevitableprogression of disease. Nurses talked about the “basis of dedication,” “conflicts withdedication,” “reorganization for maintaining dedication,” and “the reason for the changefrom conflict to commitment.” “Reorganization for maintaining dedication” meant thatnurses were able to handle the prospect of rededicating themselves to their patients.Furthermore, “the reason for the change from conflict to commitment” referred to eventsthat changed nurses’ outlooks on nursing care, their pride as nurses, or their learningexperiences. They felt dedicated and conflicted both simultaneously and separately.While committing to their patients’ physical care, nurses were empowered to thinkpositively and treat patients with dignity in spite of the care taking much time andeffort, as well as entailing considerable risk