Anaesthesia care of older patients as experienced by nurse anaesthetists This article is analysing problem situations in the context of anaesthesia care.It considers what it means for nurse anaesthetists to be in problematic situations in the anaesthesia care of older patients. Benner’s interpretive phenomenological approach proved a useful for this purpose. Paradigmcases are used to aid the analysis of individualnurses' experinces. Thirty narrated problematic anaesthesia care situations derived from seven interviews were studied. These show that experienced nurse anaesthetists perceive anaesthesia care as problematic and highly demanding when involving older patiens. To be in problematic anaesthesia care situation means becoming morally distressed, which arises from the experience or being prevented from acting upon one’s legal and moral duty of care. An important issue that emerged from this study was the need for an ethical forum to discuss and articulate moral issues, so that moral stress of the kind experienced by these nurse anaesthetists can be dealt with and hopefully reduced.