A phenomenological study to understand the experiences of nurses with regard to brainstem death.

METHOD: In this study six nurses from general intensive care units were interviewed. The resulting transcripts were analysed using hermeneutic phenomenology.
FINDINGS: The findings fall into five categories, feelings, communication, protection, education, and technology. Nurses appear to suffer a degree of cognitive dissonance that both adds to their stress and leads to difficulties in explaining brainstem death to relatives.
CONCLUSION: Nurses need more education and support to enable them to overcome cognitive dissonance and so give relatives honest information. Verbal information should be supplemented with a written information leaflet given to all relatives.