Sometimes healthcare providers must ask parents to make ethical decisions about comfort care versus aggressive treatment for their gravely ill infants. But how can providers possibly impose on or expect someone already overwhelmed with grief to bear the burden of additional emotional pain? Yet parents are, of course, the rightful decision makers. "Ethical decision making is the process of deciding the right thing to do when facing a moral dilemma. Healthcare dilemmas often occur when there are alternative choices, limited resources, and differing values" (Pozgar, 2012). Parents may be asked to make decisions about initiating complex treatments or discontinuing treatment that has already begun but is no longer effective. In these situations, providers help parents weigh risks in relation to benefits for their baby. Each individual (including each parent) may perceive risks and benefits quite differently. It is during these difficult decisions that nurses often become the most deeply sensitive patient-family advocates. In these moments, nurses are the compassionate listeners who often, just by their presence, gently invite family members to speak aloud their fears, doubts, questions, and despair. They give family members the courage to voice the finality of a painful decision.
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