Nurses are often responsible for mobilizing patients, but how they overcome barriers and make decisions to mobilize patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) is not understood.

Deciding to mobilize patients in the ICU is a multifaceted, individualized decision made by nurses, and numerous patient-, nurse-, and unit-related factors influence that decision. Future studies that target unit culture and inter-professional perspectives are needed.

An exploratory descriptive approach using semi-structured interviews of a purposive sample of registered nurses in 2 ICUs at 2 hospitals was used. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed by using directed content analysis to identify categories that describe nurses’ decision-making about patient mobility.

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