Nurse Involvement in End of Life Decision Making in the Intensive Care Unit: A Literature Review Abstract This article reviews the evidence related to nurse involvement in the end of life (EOL) decision making in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). This study was conducted by analyzing 53 scholarly papers which met the inclusion criteria. Data were searched through CINAHL, Science Direct, ProQuest, Wiley Online Library, and PubMed. The keywords used were “ICU Nurse”, combined with “end of life”, “decision making” and “end of life decision making”. The databases of PubMed, ProQuest, CINAHL, Wiley Online, Ovid, and Science Direct were used to search for the relevant articles. The results of the analysis present the definition of end of life decision making, type of end of life decision making, persons involved in end of life decision making in the ICU, process of end of life decision making in the ICU, a nurse’s role in end of life decision making, and factors influencing end of life decision making in the ICU. The results of this study are important to develop an understanding regarding nurse involvement in end of life decision making in the ICU. Keywords: decision making; end of life; intensive care unit I. INTRODUCTION Healthcare providers who work in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) focus on delivering care to patients during their acute threats and restoring their quality of lives [50]. Approximately 20% of patients die while receiving care in an ICU [35] which causes the ICU to have the highest mortality rate compared with other units in the hospital. The majority of patients died after end of life (EOL) decision making [33] which makes EOL decision making become a crucial component of nursing care in the ICU. Nurses in the ICU inevitably become a substantial component during EOL decision making. Nurses are often concerned with doing their best for the patient and the patient’s family during EOL decision making and perceive that they have full responsibility regarding the patient’s condition which can increase psychological problems among ICU nurses. Profound knowledge regarding nurse involvement in EOL decision making is needed to increase the quality of EOL decision making in the ICU. For an understanding in this area, a literature review was undertaken. II. METHODS The data of this literature review were collected from searches on databases and manual searching. The databases of PubMed, ProQuest, CINAHL, Wiley Online, Ovid, and Science Direct were used to search for relevant articles using the search terms “ICU Nurse”, combined with “end of life”, “decision making”, and “end of life decision making”. The articles used in this study were limited to articles published in English during the years 2005- 2017. The relevant articles were graded for the level of evidence using the Joanna Briggs Institute for Evidence-Based Nursing and Midwifery (JBI) 2014 levels of evidence. Key information and analysis were extracted into tables which consisted of topics and authors, year of publication, design of the study, Arif Imam Hidayat Master of Nursing Science Student (International Program), Faculty of Nursing, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand hidayat.al.fikri@gmail.com Waraporn Kongsuwan Associate Professor, Adult and Elderly Nursing Department, Faculty of Nursing, Prince of Songkla University Hat Yai, Thailand waraporn_kongsuwan@yahoo.co.uk Kittikorn Nilmanat Associate Professor, Adult and Elderly Nursing Department, Faculty of Nursing, Prince of Songkla University Hat Yai, Thailand kittikorn.n@psu.ac.th DOI: 10.5176/2345-7198_5.1.5 ISSN 2345-7198 ©The Author(s) 2018. This article is published with open access by the GSTF GSTF Journal of Nursing and Health Care (JNHC) Vol.5 No.1, Apr-2018