Perspective-taking in ICU nurses: a qualitative descriptive study

Abstract Background Perspective-taking is the cognitive and emotional process of understanding patients’ experiences from their viewpoint and is central to empathic, patient-centered care in intensive care units (ICUs). However, the ways ICU nurses draw on personal and professional experience to take patients’ perspectives remain understudied. This study examines how cardiac surgery ICU nurses in Iran describe using perspective-taking to understand and care for their patients. Methods A qualitative descriptive study was conducted with 12 purposively sampled ICU nurses (eight women, four men) in a cardiac surgery ICU in Iran. Interview transcripts were analyzed sequentially, in the order the interviews were originally conducted, using conventional content analysis, until saturation specific to perspective-taking was reached. Rigor was ensured through prolonged engagement, member checking, and audit trails. Findings Three related but distinguishable themes emerged: (1) Imagining oneself in the patient’s position (2), Understanding patients’ emotions through autobiographical and embodied experience, and (3) Gaining deeper insight by understanding others. Because interview probes directly asked about imagining oneself in the patient’s position, these themes reflect participants’ responses to targeted questioning rather than spontaneous, unprompted accounts. Conclusion Participants described perspective-taking as helpful for addressing patients’ and families’ emotional needs, and some perceived their sensitivity as growing with experience; given the cross-sectional, single-site design, this is reported as participants’ perception rather than evidence against emotional desensitization in critical care. These findings can inform reflective-practice training for critical care nurses and warrant testing in larger, multi-site samples.