Understanding End‐of‐Life Care Through the Lens of South and Southeast Asian Critical Care Nurses: A Scoping Review

BACKGROUND: Critical care nurses are essential in delivering end of life care (EOLC) within Intensive Care Units (ICUs). Nevertheless, a research gap has been identified regarding the perceptions of EOLC and the necessary training among critical care nurses in South and Southeast Asia. AIMS: The aim of this scoping review was to understand critical care nurses' perceptions regarding the delivery of EOLC in ICUs across South and Southeast Asia. STUDY DESIGN: We utilized Joanna Briggs Institute's scoping review methodology and used PRISMA framework to support our search process. RESULTS: The review included 23 studies, mostly from Southeast Asia. Key themes identified were navigating the needs of family members during EOLC, training and support needs of the nurses, therapeutic communication in EOLC, interdisciplinary collaborations, holistic care in EOLC, previous experiences of the nurses with EOLC, religious perspectives of the nurses' and nurse's views on peaceful death. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of the review identified the unmet needs of critical care nurses in delivering culturally tailored EOLC in South and Southeast Asia with a significant gap in training and support for critical care nurses. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Due to the inadequate attention to EOLC in many critical care settings worldwide, particularly in resource-limited environments, these findings are relevant to clinical practice because it will help hospital administrators develop standard guidelines and policies to empower critical care nurses.