Clinicians’ Attitudes Towards Do-Not-Resuscitate Directives in a Teaching Hospital in Saudi Arabia

The Do-Not-Resuscitate (DNR) directive has provided a major leap in end-of-life care. To demonstrate the factors influencing physicians’ DNR decisions in King Fahd University Hospital in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, 42 physicians from the medical and surgical departments of the same center were requested to participate in a cross-sectional survey. Thirty-six questionnaires were completed and returned from a total of 42 distributed among physicians, making a response rate of 85.7%. Certain diagnostic categories increase the likelihood of issuing a DNR order for a patient. Neurological (58.3%) and cardiovascular (41.7%) diseases were the highest response among other diseases in influencing physicians’ decisions. In addition, other factors like lack of comorbidities (55.5%), age (52.7%), and previous intensive care unit (ICU) admissions and resuscitation (44.4%) showed an effect on the directive decisions of DNR among investigated physicians. However, weak palliative care in the hospital (11.1%), religious beliefs (5.5%), and gender (2.7%) were the least associated factors affecting physicians’ DNR decisions. This study addresses the influencing factors of DNR orders issuance among King Fahd Hospital of the University physicians. Physicians noted that cultural standards and religious beliefs do play a role in their decision-making but had less of an effect as compared to other clinical data such as comorbidities, age, and previous ICU admissions.