Barriers or facilitators to patient-centred nursing in the intensive care unit

Introduction: Patient-centred nursing in the context of critical care differs from that in other areas of health. The highly pressured intensive care environment reflects demands exerted on critical care nurses to provide patient-centred nursing whilst meeting extremely high clinical and organisational requirements. Identification of barriers or facilitators to provision of patient-centred nursing is vital to instigate change to tackle these pressures. Understanding critical care nurses’ perceptions of this concept will support and enable identification of strategies to ensure effective patient-centred nursing and nurses’ continued engagement to maintain and grow an effective critical care nursing workforce.