Nurses and physicians evaluate their intensive care experiences.

OBJECTIVE: Analysis of the evaluation of intensive care experiences of nurses and physicians in relation to their educational background and degree of professionalization.
DESIGN: Cross-cultural, qualitative study design: German nurses and physicians and American nurses.
SETTING: German medical intensive care unit (nine beds), German surgical intensive care unit (six beds), and an American medical-surgical intensive care unit (16 beds).
SUBJECTS: Thirteen German nurses (eight women, five men) of a medical intensive care unit, six German nurses (five women, one man) of a surgical intensive care unit, nine German physicians of a medical intensive care unit (two women, seven men), and 13 American nurses of a medical-surgical intensive care unit (10 women, three men).
METHODS: The interviewing technique by the method of Role Repertory Grid Test by G.A. Kelly. We focused on important job experiences in intensive care and the remembered evaluation of these experiences.
RESULTS: The reported experiences of intensive care unit nurses and physicians show negative as well as positive appraisals. No correlation can be shown between negative appraisals and the degree of professionalization or training of German nurses and physicians, and American nurses, respectively. The qualitative-content analysis of positively appraised experiences does indicate, for all four studied groups, that even primarily so-called "positive" experiences are closely connected with negative aspects and connotations.
CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that nurses and physicians experience intensive care work with extreme ambivalence. To be content with and successful on the job it appears necessary to develop a high level of ambivalence. From a methodologic point of view, the advantages of the interviewing technique (Role Repertory Grid) are discussed.