Objectives: To describe the essence of the nurses' lived experience and explore the meaning of their involvement in end-of-life care after a do-not-resuscitate decision has been made. Research methodology/design: The research design embraced qualitative, exploratory and descriptive approaches utilising aspects of phenomenology. Purposive sampling of twenty-six registered nurses was used. Data was collected using the reflective journaling technique and were analysed using an integrated approach. Field notes were also used as a mean to enrich the description of the findings contextually.

Setting: Medical units in Saudi Arabia.

Results: Three main themes emerged: exhausted medical treatment, continuity of nursing care and cultural considerations in nursing care. Related sub-themes were also identified as an extension to the description of the main themes.

Conclusion: The findings affirm that nurses working on medical units continue to maintain a constant level of care for patients and families after the do-not-resuscitate decision. Nurses found that caring for dying patients was a rewarding and worthwhile experience, albeit a challenging and demanding one. The findings suggest that improvement in end-of-life care would be best achieved by collaborative and interdisciplinary practices amongst the health care team members.