Critical Care Nurses’ Self-Efficacy in Responding to Emergency Code Situations
College of Nursing, Walden University
How they used Delve
A doctoral candidate at Walden University's College of Nursing used Delve to open-code nine critical care nurse interviews line by line, colour-coding positive and negative statements against Bandura's four sources of self-efficacy and tracking the evolution of codes into eight themes — switching to Delve from NVivo, with IRB approval, because of cost.
“Initially, NVivo was planned for use; however, before transcription began, a request to change the procedure was submitted to the IRBs due to the software's cost. After approval was granted, the software used for data analysis was the Delve qualitative analysis tool. This software supported the collection, organization, coding, and identification of themes within the qualitative data.”
- Field
- Critical care nursing / self-efficacy and emergency response
- Data
- Semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of nine critical care nurses, each with at least one year of ICU experience
- Approach
- Qualitative narrative approach structured by Bandura's four sources of self-efficacy (mastery, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, emotional arousal); line-by-line open coding of every transcript, colour-coded for positive and negative valence against those four concepts, then thematic analysis producing eight themes
- Data types
- Interviews
Abstract
Self-efficacy is a key factor influencing behavior and performance in health care, particularly in high-acuity environments such as the critical care setting.Despite formal training, not all nurses feel equally confident or capable of responding effectively in emergency situations, which poses a significant clinical concern that may affect timely and effective patient safety and outcomes.The purpose of this qualitative narrative study, underpinned by social cognitive theory, was to explore factors influencing critical care nurses’ self-efficacy and their performance during emergency code responses.A purposive sample of nine critical care nurses with at least 1 year of intensive care unit experience participated in semistructured interviews.Thematic analysis was used to identify patterns and develop themes from participants’ lived experiences.Eight themes emerged: competence, failure, modeling, disempowerment, motivation, discouragement, empowerment, and distress.Findings indicate that performance during emergency code situations is influenced not only by knowledge and skill but also by nurses’ belief in their ability to act in critical situations.The implications for positive social change include the potential for nurse educators, health care leaders, and clinical institutional administrators to implement simulation training, mentorship, structured feedback, and stress management interventions to strengthen self-efficacy, improve patient outcomes, and enhance workforce well-being in critical care settings.
Citation
Nesheemah Sabree (2026). Critical Care Nurses’ Self-Efficacy in Responding to Emergency Code Situations. ScholarWorks (Walden University).