Paper
Sunday, November 4, 2007
361
Is conscientious objection a potential response to technological, life-extending treatments at the end of life which cause suffering rather than offering comfort and dignity?
Anita J. Catlin, DNSc, FNP, FAAN and Deborah Volat, Certified, Midwife. Nursing, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA, USA
The most frequently reported cause of moral distress in nursing is following orders to support patients with advanced technology at the end of their lives when palliative or comfort care would be more humane. Nurses report that they feel they are harming patients or causing suffering when they could be comforting instead. A university research team spent a year looking at moral distress and futility, as well as constructing a concept analysis of conscientious objection by nurses as a response to advanced technological interventions for the dying patient. After exploration of the concept of conscientious objection, the team created a pilot survey study to ask for clinical verification of the concept’s use, per the Schwartz Barcott (2002) method. 67 NICU and PICU nurses reported high interest in conscientious objection as a method of being able to live within their own moral frameworks.