Background: Complex and expensive treatment options have increased the frequency and emphasis of ethical decision making in healthcare. In order to meet these challenges effectively we need to identify how nurses contribute the resolution of these dilemmas.
Aims:To identify the values, beliefs and contextual influences that inform decision making.To identify the contribution made by nurses in achieving the resolution of ethical dilemmas in practice.Design: An interpretive exploratory study was undertaken, eleven registered acute care nurses, working in a district general hospital in England were interviewed, using semi-structured interviews. In-depth content analysis of the data was undertaken via NVivo coding and thematic identification.