How Would Doctors Want to Die if They Had a Terminal Stage Illness? A Survey Study
Abstract
Objectives: The purpose of this
study is to determine the treatments that physicians prefer to receive, if they
had a terminal stage illness and to observe whether these preferences are
influenced by parameters such as age, work years in the profession or
specialty.
Materials and Methods: A survey
consisting of 22 questions was delivered to physicians. The physicians were
asked if they were prefer to die in hospital, home, intensive care unit or
palliative care center if they were terminally ill; and they would want invasive
procedures performed. They were also asked whether they informed their
relatives about those preferences.
Results: A total of 443 physicians
participated in the study, 77.42% of them stated that they would prefer to die
at home if they had a terminal illness. Regarding invasive procedures; 72.46%
of the physicians did not want chest compressions, 75.62 % did not want to be
connected to the ventilator, 57.56% did not want a central catheter, 49.88% did
not want hemodialysis, and 61.17% did not want a feeding tube placement. Only
17.15% of physicians stated that they had talked with their relatives about end
of life decisions.
Conclusion: In this study we found
that most physicians want to die at home and do not wish to be treated with
invasive interventions in case they had a life limiting illness. However, we also
observed that the majority of the physicians do not share these opinions with
their close ones.
Keywords
References
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Details
Primary Language
English
Subjects
Health Care Administration
Journal Section
Research Article
Authors
Ramazan Avcu
This is me
Şervan Gökhan
This is me
Gül Pamukçu Günaydın
This is me
Ayhan Özhasenekler
This is me
Fatih Tanrıverdi
This is me
Alp Şener
This is me
Publication Date
December 27, 2018
Submission Date
December 14, 2018
Acceptance Date
-
Published in Issue
Year 2018 Volume: 18 Number: 4