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Background: The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) can be ethically charged, which can create challenges for health-care workers.Objective: To determine the frequency with which nurses and residents have experienced ethical confrontations and what factors are associated with increased frequency.Design/Methods: An anonymous questionnaire was distributed to nurses in a university center, a high-risk obstetric service, a maternity hospital NICU with 85% in-born patients and an outborn NICU, most of whose preterm admissions are those with surgical complications. Obstetric and pediatric residents in the four universities of the province also received the questionnaire, which included demographics, opinions regarding the gestational age threshold at which resuscitation of a premature infant with bradycardia was appropriate, knowledge of cerebral palsy (CP) outcomes (as an indicator of knowledge about long-term sequelae of prematurity) and questions about ethical confrontation in the NICU.Results: Two hundred and seventy-nine caregivers participated (115 full time nurses and 164 residents). All the distributed questionnaires were completed. Frequent ethical confrontation was reported by 35% of the nurses and 19% of the residents. Among the nurses, moral distress differed significantly between work environments. Nurses working in an out-born NICU and obstetric nurses were more likely to overestimate CP prevalence (P<0.05). Nurses who overestimated CP rates had higher thresholds for resuscitation and were more likely to experience ethical confrontations. Of the residents, 60% were pediatric and 40% obstetric. All groups of residents frequently overestimated the prevalence of CP, and knowledge differed significantly by residency program (P<0.05). The residents who overestimated CP rates had higher thresholds for resuscitation, had more incorrect answers regarding prematurity outcomes and were less likely to have ethical confrontations.Conclusions: A large proportion of nurses and residents report frequent ethical confrontations. Many residents and nurses have limited knowledge of outcomes and high threshold for resuscitation. Ethical confrontation is more common among nurses with poor knowledge about outcomes, and less common in residents with poor knowledge about outcomes.

Studies examining recovery through the service users' perspectives have mainly included persons with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Giving voice to those with borderline personality disorder (BPD) would enrich our understanding of recovery, as their specific experiences may bring new dimensions, obstacles and facilitators. The objective of this study was to qualitatively capture the experience of recovery in women with BPD. Participants were women between 18 and 65 years old who had a diagnosis of BPD and completed at least 2 years in a program for persons with BPD. During the first meeting, they produced a picture collage, followed by an interview on their experience of recovery. The second meeting was a phone interview to discuss new thoughts. In addition, their medical records were reviewed. A thematic analysis of the interviews was conducted and organized with the Person-Environment-Occupation model. Although recovery was not the best term to name their experience, they all talked about a process towards stability and wellbeing (n = 12). Dimensions of recovery included, for example, letting go of the past (person), being involved in meaningful activities (occupation) and having healthy relationships (environment). Facilitators included social support and participation in a specialized therapy program. The main obstacle was unstable family relationships. The findings from this study showed similar dimensions to previous recovery studies, new perspectives on certain dimensions, as well as new ones. They also reinforced the importance to incorporate intervention outcomes that target the person with BPD, their social environment and meaningful occupations.

Providers of perinatal health care respond to vignettes differently depending upon the format in which information is provided. The relative unwillingness to resuscitate a baby of 24-week gestation is surprising since outcomes for such babies are the same or better than those we described in the scenario that provided only outcome data without specifying gestational age. Two explanations are possible: (1) respondents have irrational negative associations with low gestational ages or (2) respondents are unaware of actual outcomes.