Aim: To identify factors underlying ethical conflict occurring during the current COVID-19 pandemic in the critical care setting.
Background: During the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak, Spanish and Italian intensive care units were overwhelmed by the demand for admissions. This fact revealed a crucial problem of shortage of health resources and rendered that decision-making was highly complex.
Sources of evidence: Applying a nominal group technique this manuscript identifies a series of factors that may have played a role in the emergence of the ethical conflicts in critical care units during the COVID-19 pandemic, considering ethical principles and responsibilities included in the International Council of Nurses Code of Ethics. The five factors identified were the availability of resources; the protection of healthcare workers; the circumstances surrounding decision-making, end-of-life care, and communication.
Discussion: The impact of COVID-19 on health care will be long-lasting and nurses are playing a central role in overcoming this crisis. Identifying these five factors and the conflicts that have arisen during the COVID-19 pandemic can help to guide future policies and research.
Conclusions: Understanding these five factors and recognizing the conflicts, they may create can help to focus our efforts on minimizing the impact of the ethical consequences of a crisis of this magnitude and on developing new plans and guidelines for future pandemics.
Implications for nursing practice and policy: Learning more about these factors can help nurses, other health professionals, and policymakers to focus their efforts on minimizing the impact of the ethical consequences of a crisis of this scale. This will enable changes in organizational policies, improvement in clinical competencies, and development of the scope of practice.
Keywords: COVID-19; Ethical conflict; critical care nursing; decision-making; ethics responsibilities; pandemic Nursing ethics; Nurses.
© 2020 International Council of Nurses.