Bakgrund: Palliativ vård är ett förhållningssätt som syftar till att främja livskvalitet hos patienter och deras närstående när de drabbas av problem som kan uppstå vid livshotande sjukdom. Många döende önskar att få vårdas i hemmet och utvecklingen av den palliativa vården har lett till att allt fler människor också avlider i det egna hemmet. Närstående är en central del i den palliativa vården i hemmet och det beskrivs att de är i en utsatt situation när de tar på sig dubbla roller i att både finnas där som partner, vän eller familj samtidigt som de tar på sig ansvar att vårda den sjuke i hemmet. Syfte: Syftet var att beskriva närståendes upplevelse av palliativ vård i hemmet. Metod: En litteraturöversikt har genomförts med sökning i databaserna SwePub, PubMed och PsycINFO. Åtta vetenskapliga artiklar, samtliga kvalitativa och baserade på forskning från Sverige inkluderades för resultatet. Artiklarna var publicerade mellan 2003 och 2014. Resultat: Resultatet presenteras i fyra huvudteman; Upplevelse av ansvar, , upplevelse av att närståendes egen situation påverkas, upplevelse av den kommande förlusten och upplevelse av stöd från vårdteam och omgivningen. Att vårda en svårt sjuk i hemmet med det ansvar som följer leder ofta till negativa konsekvenser på närståendes egen hälsa. Vårdteamet spelar en viktig roll i hur närstående upplever sin situation. Diskussion: Närstående möter nya situationer när de tar på sig rollen att vårda en svårt sjuk i hemmet, för att kunna hantera den nya situationen behöver de stöd av vårdteamet och förståelse för den transition de går igenom. Sjuksköterskan har ett ansvar att ge stöd åt närstående, tillsammans med det vårdteam som hon ingår i. Stödet kan se ut på olika sätt och en viktig uppgift för sjuksköterskan är att våga ge stöd i de existentiella frågorna likväl som de medicinska. / Background: Palliative care is an approach that aims to promote quality of life of patients and their relatives when life threatening problems occur. People wish to be carried for at home in the last phase of life and the development of palliative care in Sweden led to that many people also dies in their own homes. Next of kin’s has a central role in palliative home care and research had shown that the situation is burdensome for the next of kin’s, when they want to be there for the seriously ill person as a partner, family or friend and at the same time take responsibility of caring. Aim: The aim of this literature review was to describe next of kin's experience of palliative home care. Method: The literature review was performed with search in databases; SwePub, PubMed and PsycINFO. Eight scientific articles, all with qualitative design and based on research in Sweden were included for the literature review. The articles were published between 2003 and 2014. Results: The results are presented in four main themes; Experience of responsibility, next of kin’s experience of that their own situation is changing, the experience of the forthcoming loss, and the experience of the support from the care team and the surroundings. The great responsibility to care for a seriously ill at home often led to negative consequences for the next of kin’s own health. The care team has an impact of how next of kin’s perceive their situation. Discussions: Next of kin’s encounter new situations when they care for a seriously ill at home. In order to handle the new situation, they need support from the care team and understanding of the transition they are going through. The nurse has a responsibility to provide support to next of kin’s, together with the care team. The support can vary, an important task is to emphasize the existential questions nevertheless the medical.

Changes to healthcare delivery models such as the promotion of an interdisciplinary team approach to patient care and increased hiring of unlicensed care providers have resulted in the need for knowledge about effective interdisciplinary teams. The purpose of this study was to describe student experiences in the development of team during an “interdisciplinary” clinical practicum. Participants were in first and third year of the Dalhousie baccalaureate nursing program, first year of the Nova Scotia Community College practical nursing diploma and at the end of the Nova Scotia Community College Continuing Care Assistant certificate program. Using a qualitative descriptive methodology, in-depth interviews were conducted with the eight participants to understand their experience of what made the team during an “Interdisciplinary” Collaborative Clinical Education Project (ICCEP) practicum. Thematic analysis revealed three themes; clinical instructor mentoring, peer attitudes of respect and acceptance, and mutual sharing of knowledge and skill.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-06T23:44:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2006 / O estudo da vida humana no seu final tornou-se uma questão de primeira grandeza em nossa sociedade atual, principalmente para os profissionais da saúde. Há indicadores inquietantes em relação ao cuidado do sofrimento de final de vida. Este estudo trata de algumas questões fundamentais relacionadas com a filosofia dos Cuidados Paliativos e propõe uma educação dos alunos de graduação através de cursos de Cuidados Paliativos com o objetivo de criar uma atitude humanitária dos futuros profissionais em relação àquele que está morrendo. A esperança está na intervenção na formação dos profissionais da saúde, na reformulação curricular que contemple esta visão antropológica, para além da formação tecnocientífica necessária, e na implementação da filosofia de Cuidados Paliativos. Para fundamentar a discussão e caracterizar a formação do profissional de saúde frente às novas propostas educacionais, buscou-se na literatura discussões sobre a formação destes profissionais e o cuidado do paciente fora de recursos de cura, porém não fora de recursos sintomáticos. Para obter estes subsídios a metodologia adotada combina a revisão sistemática da literatura nacional e internacional produzida na área, com a pesquisa empírica, por meio da aplicação de questionário a uma equipe multiprofissional, atuante em Cuidados Paliativos dentro de uma instituição de ensino. O estudo foi desenvolvido sob uma abordagem qualitativa. Os profissionais sujeitos da pesquisa contribuíram na identificação de problemas e oferecendo sugestões. Com base nos resultados, desvelou-se a necessidade urgente e emergente na área da saúde de capacitar os profissionais de saúde a enfrentarem o cuidado a pacientes fora de recursos de cura por meio de uma educação continuada fundamentada no conhecimento do processo de morte e morrer. / The study of human life at its end has become a central issue in our society, especially for health workers. There are now disturbing indications concerning the caring for suffering individuals at the end of life. The present study deals with some of the fundamental issues related to the palliative care philosophy and sugests specific instruction to undergraduate students by means of Palliative Care courses, aiming at establishing a humanitarian attitude by future workers towards those who are dying. Hope can be found in the intervention in the training of health workers, in restructuring of courses by taking an anthropological view into account beyond the necessary technoscientific training, and in implementing the Palliative Care philosophy. In order to validate this discussion and to characterize the training of health workers with regard to new educational ideas, literature was searched for discussion about the training of these workers and the care of the patient beyond healing resources, but not beyond symptomatic resources. The adopted methodology combines the systematic review of the national and international literature about the subject and empirical research, by applying a questionnaire to a multiprofessional team working with Palliative Care at a teaching institution. The study was developed with a qualitative approach. The subjects helped by identifying problems and making suggestions. Based on the results, an emerging need was unveiled: that of enabling health workers to face caring for patients beyond healing resources, through ongoing training fundamented on the knowledge about the process of death and dying. / BV UNIFESP: Teses e dissertações

Orientador: Marcos de Souza Queiroz / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Ciencias Medicas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-14T00:16:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Melo_LucasPereirade_M.pdf: 3033800 bytes, checksum: 40dfe6efbf598fcd61ec565308642b49 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Resumo: Este estudo tem como objetivo interpretar as dimensões estruturais e simbólicas da cultura de uma enfermaria cirúrgica de um Hospital Universitário em Campinas-SP. A investigação é pertinente devido à importância do desenvolvimento de estudos qualitativos que dirijam seu interesse ao aspecto cultural do hospital e por permitir uma imersão nas dimensões microsociológicas do trabalho em saúde em um contexto de transição organizacional e paradigmática. Trata-se de um estudo de abordagem qualitativa, tendo como referencial metodológico a pesquisa etnográfica. O trabalho de campo foi realizado na Enfermaria Cirúrgica do referido hospital no período de março a setembro de 2008. Os atores sociais envolvidos foram os profissionais que compõem a equipe multiprofissional atuante naquele cenário. Para coligir as informações foram combinadas as seguintes técnicas de pesquisa: observação participante, entrevistas individuais semi-estruturadas, questionário sócio-econômico e fotografias da estrutura física. Os dados provenientes das observações participantes foram registrados no diário de campo e as entrevistas registradas em áudio para posterior transcrição e análise. A análise das informações foi realizada mediante a elaboração de domínios culturais, análises taxonômicas e temas culturais. Os temas culturais que emergiram foram: Ritos de Iniciação e de Passagem: estágios da trajetória profissional - discutem-se as vivências dos profissionais de saúde nos períodos de experiência, por ocasião da admissão como funcionário do hospital e as passagens entre categorias profissionais específicas; O espaço físico da copa: liminaridade, communitas e antiestrutura - abordamos os aspectos relacionados à construção de espaços liminares no interior do ambiente estrutural da organização hospitalar no intuito de permitir a vivência de situações sociais de communitas e antiestrutura, além de possibilitar a subjetivação da experiência do trabalho em saúde; e Um misto de urgência, angústia e satisfação: características marcantes do processo de trabalho - são abordados os diversos aspectos e nuances que permeiam o processo de trabalho dos profissionais de saúde do cenário cultural estudado, bem como a relação entre a urgência dos cuidados desenvolvidos e, paralelamente, a angústia e a satisfação geradas pelo trabalho desses atores sociais. Com base nesses temas culturais são tecidas algumas considerações a cerca da cultura estudada, destacando a importância que o espaço físico da copa interna da enfermaria assume, ao permear diversos aspectos concernentes ao modo próprio de viver, pensar e sentir o cotidiano dos profissionais de saúde que atuam nesse contexto. Além disso, acentua-se a emergência de inúmeras estratégias e mecanismos de resistência que se expressam por meio da elaboração de "anti-cenários", de caráter simbólico, que são interpretados e manipulados pelos sujeitos da pesquisa diariamente no sentido de possibilitar uma vivência mais saudável em um ambiente estruturado, hierarquizado, artificial, disciplinado e medicalizado, como é o ambiente hospitalar. Por fim, destaca-se a contribuição que a experiência vivenciada na copa pode trazer à reforma organizacional em curso no campo de pesquisa e à área de Administração em Enfermagem, bem como o fato do hospital ser uma instituição que também comporta a dimensão humana, os rituais, os processos de individualização, as hierarquias mais flexíveis, os espaços de socialização e lazer, dentre tantos outros aspectos / Abstract: This study aims to interpret the structural and symbolic dimensions of the surgical ward culture in the University Hospital in Campinas. This research is relevant because of the importance of the development of the qualitative studies, which addresses their interest to the hospital's cultural aspects and allow an immersion in the micro-sociological topics of health work in a context of organization and paradigm transition. This is a qualitative approach study according to the anthropological tradition, with an ethnographic research method reference. The fieldwork was conducted in the surgical ward, from March to September, 2008. The participants were 45 professionals of the patient team care. To collect the information the following research techniques were combined: participant observation, interviews, socio-economic questionnaire and photographs of the physical structure. Data from participant observations were recorded daily in the field and interviews were recorded in audio for later transcription and analysis. The analysis of information was performed through the development of cultural domains, taxonomic analysis and cultural themes. The cultural themes which emerged from the analysis were: Rites of Initiation and Passage: career stages - it discusses the experiences of health professionals in times of experience when admited at the hospital and their passages through specific occupational categories, and it is based on the theoretical concept of liminarity; The dining room: liminarity, communitas and anti-structure - it address the aspects of liminal spaces within the structural environment of the hospital organization, to enable the experience of communitas and social situations of anti-structure in addition to providing the subjectivity of the experience of working with health; and a mix of urgency, anxiety and satisfaction: characteristics of the work - the various aspects that permeate the health professionals work in the cultural scene studied and the relationship between the urgency of care developed are discussed and, simultaneously, the anguish and satisfaction generated by the work of these social actors. Based on these cultural themes some considerations were made about the culture studied, highlighting the importance of the dining room which permeates many aspects concerning the way of living, thinking and the daily experience of health professionals, who operate in that context. Furthermore, it emphasizes the emergence of many strategies and mechanisms of resistance that are expressed through the development of "anti-scenarios" of symbolic character, which are interpreted and handled daily by the subjects of research to enable a healthier expirence in a structured, hierarchical, artificial, medical and disciplined environment, as the hospital. Finally, there is the contribution which the experience in the dining room can bring to organizational reform underway in the search field and to the Nursing Administration area, and the fact that the hospital is an institution which also includes the human dimension, the rituals, the processes of individualization, the flexible hierarchies, the areas of socialization and recreation, among many other things / Mestrado / Enfermagem e Trabalho / Mestre em Enfermagem

Introdução: Nos serviços de urgência e emergência hospitalares, a complexidade das necessidades de saúde exige cada vez mais o trabalho colaborativo em equipes interprofissionais, sendo necessária a identificação das ações para a construção das competências específicas, comuns e colaborativas. Essa identificação clarifica os papéis e fortalece o trabalho colaborativo nas equipes de urgência e emergência. Objetivos: identificar as ações específicas, comuns e colaborativas dos enfermeiros em urgência e emergência hospitalar de um hospital público do Estado de São Paulo. Método: Pesquisa descritiva, exploratória e de abordagem qualitativa, que utilizou como categorias conceituais as competências, conforme a definição de Zarifian (2003); as competências complementares, comuns e colaborativas de Barr (1998); as competências para a prática interprofissional colaborativa, propostas pelo Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative (CIHC) de 2010, e a definição de equipe de referência e apoio matricial segundo Campos & Domitti (2007). Para a coleta de dados foram realizadas entrevistas individuais e semiestruturadas com os enfermeiros que atuam no Pronto-Socorro de um hospital público do estado de São Paulo. Para a análise do material proveniente das entrevistas foi utilizada a técnica de análise temática de Bardin (2011). Os dados das entrevistas foram analisados para identificação do conjunto de ações específicas, comuns e colaborativas. Resultados: Os achados revelam que os enfermeiros desempenham mais ações voltadas para a gestão e articulação do cuidado, comparando-se à prática centrada na família e no paciente, que ainda é pouco realizada pelos enfermeiros. A clarificação dos papéis e a importância do saber comum destaca que o enfermeiro reconhece o seu próprio papel, porém tem dificuldade em reconhecer os papéis dos demais profissionais da equipe. A comunicação é a principal ferramenta utilizada pelo enfermeiro dentro das ações específicas, comuns e colaborativas, e está mais relacionada à comunicação instrumental e tecnicista, ou seja, à passagem de informação entre profissionais, o que mostra a necessidade de uma comunicação mais ampla, com a troca de experiências, compartilhamento de informações, entendimento mútuo e a confiança entre os profissionais. A dinâmica do setor de urgência e emergência dificulta a realização de reuniões e encontros de equipe interprofissional de urgência e emergência, portanto se faz necessária a implantação de protocolos e fluxos de atendimento para o entendimento mútuo dos processos estabelecidos, o que facilitaria o trabalho interprofissional em equipe e em colaboração dentro do Pronto-Socorro. Conclusões: Espera-se que a identificação das ações possa levar à construção de um quadro de competências específicas, comuns e colaborativas para o enfermeiro em urgência e emergência, e clarifique o papel do enfermeiro no contexto das equipes interprofissionais, fortalecendo a colaboração e contribuindo para o desenvolvimento de novas práticas de saúde neste cenário. / Introduction: In both urgent care and hospital emergency room services, the complexity of the health needs urges more collaborative work among interprofessional teams, which is necessary to identify the actions in order to build specific, common and collaborative skills. This identification clarifies the roles and strengthens the collaborative work in urgent and emergency teams. Objectives: Identify the specific, common and collaborative actions of nurses in hospital emergency care at a public hospital in the State of São Paulo. Method: Descriptive, exploratory and qualitative approach, which adopted as conceptual categories the competences, as defined by Zarifian (2003); the complementary, common and collaborative skills of Barr (1998); competencies for collaborative interprofessional practice, proposed by the Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative (CIHC) in 2010, and the definition of reference team and matrix support according to Campos and Domitti (2007). For data collection, individual and semi-structured interviews were conducted with nurses who work in the emergency room of a public hospital in the state of São Paulo. For the analysis of the material collected from the interviews, the technique of thematic analysis of Bardin (2011) was employed. The interview data were analyzed to identify the set of specific, common and collaborative actions. Results: The findings show that nurses perform more actions related to management and care coordination, rather than focus on family and patient issues, which are still not carried out by nurses. The clarification of roles and the importance of common knowledge highlight that nurses recognize their own role, but have difficulty in recognizing the roles of other members from the staff. Communication is the main tool used by the nurse among the specific, common and collaborative actions, and it is more related to the instrumental and technical communication, i.e. passage of information between professional, which shows the need of a broader communication, with exchange of experiences, information sharing, mutual understanding and trust among professionals. The dynamics of the urgent and emergency sectors make it difficult to hold meetings with the interprofessional teams, and those are necessary to implement protocols and service flows for the mutual understanding of established processes, which would facilitate the interprofessional work in team and in collaboration within the first-aid station. Conclusions: It is expected that the identification of actions can lead to the construction of a specific competency framework, common and collaborative, for nurses in emergency care, and also clarify the role of the nurse in the context of interprofessional teams, strengthening collaboration and contributing to the development of new health practices in this setting.

Orientadores: Maria Cecília Marconi Pinheiro Lima, Maria de Fátima de Campos Françozo / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-26T01:04:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ArdinghiBrollo_MariaLuiza_M.pdf: 3510871 bytes, checksum: 5b33da3ad30af3f705aead6a6043024c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: Vários aspectos da estrutura social estão envolvidos com a construção das políticas de saúde. As tensões decorrentes de olhares distintos para problemas comuns, a organização das ações e a escolha das prioridades, o exercício continuado das relações de poder. Estudar as políticas de saúde e a organização dos serviços não é tarefa pouco complexa. No caso das políticas de saúde voltadas às pessoas com deficiência, uma diretriz importante é um maior grau de equidade no acesso desta população às ofertas de saúde para satisfazer suas necessidades na busca de bem estar físico e psíquico. Este trabalho se propôs a analisar a implantação da Câmara Técnica de Reabilitação da Secretaria Municipal de Saúde de Campinas, como um instrumento de gestão pública. Para tanto, foi realizado um estudo qualitativo, por meio de pesquisa de fontes documentais relacionadas com a atenção à pessoa com deficiência desta secretaria. Dentre os documentos estudados, encontravam-se prospectos, atas de reuniões, relatórios e manuais, buscando-se neles os fatos e acontecimentos relacionados com a implantação da Câmara Técnica. Além disso, foram analisados questionários aplicados pelo gestor da área de reabilitação aos trabalhadores do Centro de Referência em Reabilitação, cuja finalidade era, na época, avaliar o trabalho realizado pelo grupo e planejar futuras ações. Os resultados permitiram a elaboração de um breve histórico da reabilitação no município de Campinas, contextualizando a concepção da Câmara Técnica; evidenciaram a área de reabilitação se organizando e adquirindo visibilidade na estrutura da Secretaria Municipal de Saúde; destacaram o estudo de um manual que evidenciou a organização de uma rede de atenção pautada na colaboração entre seus serviços; permitiram, na leitura das atas das reuniões da Câmara Técnica, a correlação das propostas apresentadas com fatos descritos na época. A análise dos conteúdos dos questionários ressaltou três eixos principais: a percepção de uma rede de serviços voltada à reabilitação; a constatação de mudanças internas, subjetivas nos trabalhadores que participaram da Câmara Técnica e a compreensão da interdisciplinaridade e intersetorialidade pelos mesmos. Nas falas dos trabalhadores foi possível evidenciar a autonomia do grupo técnico e de seus usuários na medida em que conheceram seus pares e se organizaram numa rede de ações e saberes. Nas falas desses trabalhadores percebemos a figura do trabalhador-cidadão que se sente parte integrante do problema e da solução / Abstract: Various aspects of social structure are involved in the construction of health policies. Tensions arising from distinct looks for common problems, the organization of actions and the choice of priorities, the continued exercise of power relations. Studying health policies and the organization of services is not just a complex task. In the case of health policies for people with disabilities, an important guideline is a greater degree of equity of this population to access health offering in order to meet their needs in the search of physical and mental well-being. This work proposed to analyze the implantation of the Municipal Secretary Health of Campinas¿ Technical Chamber of Rehabilitation as an instrument of public management. Thus, it was done a qualitative study, based on the research of documentary sources relating to the care for people with disabilities inside this organization. Among the documents studied, there were leaflets, minutes of meetings, reports and manuals, seeking in them the facts and events related to the implantation of the Technical Chamber. In addition, questionnaires applied by the rehabilitation area manager to the workers of the Rehabilitation Reference Center, whose purpose was, at the time, to evaluate the work done by the group and to plan activities for the coming year. The results allowed, in principle, the survey of a brief history of rehabilitation in the borough of Campinas, contextualizing the conception of the Technical Chamber; showed the area of rehabilitation being organized and getting visibility inside the Municipal Secretary of Health's structure; emphasized the study of a manual that showed the organization of a care network based in the collaboration between its services; allowed, in the reading of the minutes of the Technical Chamber's meetings, the correlation of proposals with facts described at the time. The analyses of the content of the questionnaires highlighted three main axes: the perception of a network of services aimed at rehabilitation; the finding of internal and subjective changes of the Technical Chamber's workers and the understanding of interdisciplinarity and intersectoriality by them. In the speeches of workers was possible to point the autonomy of the technical group and its members as they knew their peers and have organized a network of actions and knowledge. In the speeches of these workers we realized the image of the worker-citizen who feels part of the problem as well of the solution / Mestrado / Interdisciplinaridade e Reabilitação / Mestra em Saúde, Interdisciplinaridade e Reabilitação

The aim of this study is to determine the effect of two approaches of social work intervention, a continuity approach, and a team approach, upon the three dependent variables of subject satisfaction, control, and mood. In order to determine differences in outcome, subjects were administered psychological tests to determine changes in their reported sense of control and mood (hopelessness) in relation to their response to the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. At follow-up, subjects also completed a questionnaire designed to determine their satisfaction with social work services received. The amount of time spent in contact with social workers was also assessed at this time. The analysis of the relationship between these variables revealed that there were no statistically significant differences between the study groups; subjects were equally satisfied with the two approaches in social work intervention, and there were no major differences between the reported changes in mood and control by the subjects in the study groups. / Medicine, Faculty of / Population and Public Health (SPPH), School of / Graduate

A better understanding of task allocation for the registered nurse (RN) within the scope of the multidisciplinary care team model is required. Patients, healthcare staff, and medical facilities that utilize RNs in multidisciplinary care teams will benefit from improved role identification. A multidisciplinary care team consists of a variety of health care professionals and without role identification, confusion, miscommunication, and negative patient outcomes can occur. A literature review demonstrated that a gap in knowledge existed related to task allocation and role identification of RNs within a multidisciplinary care team. The purpose of this study was to evaluate RNs’ scope of practice within a multidisciplinary care team of an acute care medical center and identify a new theory regarding RNs’ perceptions of their role. A grounded theory approach was used to explore and reveal these perceived role identifications through the lens of the accountability theory. The research questions and the guided interview explored RNs’ self-perceived role identifications that have shaped RNs’ expectations of their scope within the multidisciplinary care team model. The results found nurses to be experts of patient care and that the nursing role has a 24/7 responsibility while being the closest, most personal role to the patient, thus, the RN feels accountable for all the needs to the patient, even if the needs or actions are outside of the nursing assigned role or tasks. From these results emerged a new theory, the perpetual accountability theory. Identified recommendations regarding RNs’ roles and their utilization within the multidisciplinary care teams allow a positive social change of greater success at delivering best practices and optimum patient outcomes.

To improve patient safety a major change in health care reduced medical resident work hours to limit provider fatigue, in 2002 (Philibert, Friedmann, Williams, & Hours, 2002). This resulted in mid-level practitioners filling this provider void in health care teams, including critical care units (Buchanan, 1996; Christmas et al., 2005; Hoffman, Tasota, Scharfenberg, Zullo, & Donahoe, 2003; Hoffman, Tasota, Zullo, Scharfenberg, & Donahoe, 2005; Hooker & McCaig, 1996, 2001; Kaups, Parks, & Morris, 1998; Miller, Riehl, Napier, Barber, & Dabideen, 1998; Yeager, Shaw, Casavant, & Burns, 2006). In order to make appropriate clinical decisions for patients in critical care settings, mid-level practitioners are required to interpret data from multiple sources and to assimilate this information in a timely manner (Bernard, Corwin, & MacIntyre, 2000). Although these practitioners are actively involved in decision making individually and among interdisciplinary teams in critical care units, their decision making has not been described in the literature to date (Shortell et al., 1994). Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative study was to describe how critical care mid-level practitioners (N= 17) make decisions within an interdisciplinary team, undergirded by the cognitive continuum theory. A qualitative research design using focus groups guided by naturalistic inquiry enabled data collection. An interview guide, developed from the literature review and undergirded by the cognitive continuum theory, was used to structure discussion in the focus groups. Additionally, a demographic questionnaire and vignette were used to aid in description of findings. Data was managed by note based analysis and summarized on a Microsoft Excel document. Qualitative description was used to illustrate the findings. Prior to this study, there was a paucity of empirical literature describing the clinical decision making of critical care mid-level practitioners. The findings revealed a web of complexity in mid-level practitioner decision making on an interdisciplinary team. This included an overarching theme of quality of care, with central overlapping themes of judgment, resources, and negotiation interwoven with sub-themes of trust, communication, experience, and team structure. This study’s findings have direct implications for mid-level practitioner training courses, mid-level training, critical care orientation programs, theory development, and health policy.