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A study was undertaken to explore whether critical care nurses perceive that they have been adequately prepared during basic nursing education to care for the dying and their loved ones and to identify if there is a relation between their perceptions of preparedness and ability to provide end of life care and professional quality of life (PQOL). Findings indicate that there is a relationship between critical care nurse perceptions of preparedness and ability to care for the dying and their PQOL, with higher compassion satisfaction scores, lower compassion fatigue scores, and lower burnout scores for those who perceive themselves more prepared and better able to provide end of life care (N = 473). Thus, pedagogic interventions to enhance perceptions of preparedness and ability to care for the dying can potentially improved PQOL for nurses working in critical care areas, possibly diminishing the incidence of compassion fatigue and burnout.

A philosophical inquiry into the concept of energy revealed two ideas of energy across multiple disciplines. Analysis of the conceptual models of Nightingale, Levine, and Rogers supported the presence of two paradigmatic views of energy in nursing science that, while divergent, share a common theme. The outcome of this inquiry leads to the tentative belief that there is unity in diversity and may perhaps lead to refinement of existing nursing theory and a more congruent framework for scientific inquiry. This article specifically addresses the nursing theoretical implications related to ideas of energy arising from the inquiry.