Background: Despite the progress made in recent decades on the phenomenon of futility in adult intensive care, recognizing it during clinical care practice remains a complex and sensitive process, during which questions are often raised for which concrete answers are difficult to find. Aims: To analyze the frequency with which futile nursing interventions are implemented in critically ill patients admitted to adult intensive care in specific situations and how often futile autonomous and interdependent nursing interventions are implemented in the same (...) population, as perceived by adult intensive care nurses. Research design: Cross-sectional, quantitative, and descriptive study, which employed a questionnaire constructed specifically for this research to assess the perception of therapeutic futility in nursing in adult intensive care. Following an evaluation of the psychometric properties, the questionnaire was made available in an electronic format on the EUSurvey platform between August and October 2024. The data was analyzed between November 2023 and March 2024 using the statistical software packages SPSS and R. Participants and research context: A simple random sample of nurses working in level II and level III intensive care units in Portugal. Ethical considerations: Research ethical approvals were obtained, and the participants provided informed consent. Findings/results: Four hundred and fourteen valid questionnaires were obtained. The results allow the identification of thirty-three statistically significant associations, the inference of intervals for the mean and median for the perception of futility of nursing interventions with a 95% confidence interval, and enable the hierarchization of nursing interventions implemented in critically ill patients admitted to adult intensive care units according to the nurses’ perception of their futility. Conclusion: There is a balance in nurses' perception of the futility of their interventions in the specific situations analyzed. There is statistically significant evidence that interdependent nursing interventions are, in general, more frequently perceived as futile when compared to autonomous nursing interventions. (shrink)

Introduction Intensive care units are contexts in which, due to the remarkable existence of particularly technological resources, interventions are promoted to extend the life of people who experience highly complex health situations. This ability can lead to a culture of death denial where the possibility of implementing futile care and treatment cannot be excluded. Objective To describe nurses’ perceptions of adult intensive care units regarding the therapeutic futility of interventions implemented to persons in critical health conditions. Method Review of the (...) literature following the Scoping Review protocol of the Joanna Briggs Institute. The Population, Concept, and Context mnemonic was used to elaborate the research question and the research was performed using the EBSCOHost search engine in the CINAHL Complete databases, MEDLINE Complete, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews to identify studies published between 1990 and 2019. Seven studies were selected. Results Nurses consider that therapeutic futility, a current problem in adult intensive care units, may have a negative impact on persons in critical health conditions and that contributes directly to resource expenditure and moral conflicts and consequently leads to emotional exhaustion. Conclusion Due to the complexity of this concept, knowing and understanding people’s and families’ perceptions is crucial to the decision-making process, for which reason nurses can play a key role in managing these situations. (shrink)