The ethical weight of monitoring-as-witnessing: ICU nurses’ vicarious trauma

Yuanyuana Wang, Hongyu Chen, Xu Guo, Yi Zheng, Yueqin Gu, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University , Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, School of Nursing, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College

Nursing Ethics: An International Journal for Health Care Professionals

Published online on May 06, 2026

Abstract

Nursing Ethics, Ahead of Print.
BackgroundIntensive care nurses repeatedly witness suffering, dying, grief, and conflict. In contemporary intensive care, protocols and monitoring routines can compress nursing work into execution and vigilance, limiting opportunities to exercise moral ...