Biomaterial Database

A personal reflection: nursing art of withdrawing life support. 2010

Mary Ann Brus

Connecticut Children's Medical Center, Hartford, CT, USA. mbrus@ccmckids.org

Unique circumstances accompany each death, and there is a choreography that I observe and participate in when terminating life-saving measures. How well the process of withdrawal of care is performed impacts so many. I have created a blueprint to guide critical care nurses involved in the withdrawal of life support. This article describes one institution's guidelines for the withdrawal of life support.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008020	Life Support Care	Care provided patients requiring extraordinary therapeutic measures in order to sustain and prolong life.	Extraordinary Treatment,Prolongation of Life,Care, Life Support,Extraordinary Treatments,Life Prolongation,Treatment, Extraordinary,Treatments, Extraordinary
D009726	Nurses	Professionals qualified by graduation from an accredited school of nursing and by passage of a national licensing examination to practice nursing. They provide services to patients requiring assistance in recovering or maintaining their physical or mental health.	Nursing Personnel,Personnel, Nursing,Registered Nurses,Nurse,Nurse, Registered,Nurses, Registered,Registered Nurse
D004993	Ethics, Nursing	The principles of proper professional conduct concerning the rights and duties of nurses themselves, their patients, and their fellow practitioners, as well as their actions in the care of patients and in relations with their families.	Nursing Ethics,Ethic, Nursing,Nursing Ethic
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D001293	Attitude to Death	Conceptual response of the person to the various aspects of death, which are based on individual psychosocial and cultural experience.	Attitudes to Death,Death, Attitude to,Death, Attitudes to
D017410	Practice Guidelines as Topic	Works about directions or principles presenting current or future rules of policy for assisting health care practitioners in patient care decisions regarding diagnosis, therapy, or related clinical circumstances. The guidelines may be developed by government agencies at any level, institutions, professional societies, governing boards, or by the convening of expert panels. The guidelines form a basis for the evaluation of all aspects of health care and delivery.	Clinical Guidelines as Topic,Best Practices,Best Practice
D028761	Withholding Treatment	Withholding or withdrawal of a particular treatment or treatments, often (but not necessarily) life-prolonging treatment, from a patient or from a research subject as part of a research protocol. The concept is differentiated from REFUSAL TO TREAT, where the emphasis is on the health professional's or health facility's refusal to treat a patient or group of patients when the patient or the patient's representative requests treatment. Withholding of life-prolonging treatment is usually indexed only with EUTHANASIA, PASSIVE, unless the distinction between withholding and withdrawing treatment, or the issue of withholding palliative rather than curative treatment, is discussed.	Withdrawing Care,Cessation of Treatment,Withdrawing Treatment,Care, Withdrawing,Treatment Cessation,Treatment Cessations,Treatment, Withdrawing,Treatment, Withholding,Treatments, Withdrawing,Treatments, Withholding,Withdrawing Treatments,Withholding Treatments