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Limitation of Futile Therapy in the Opinion of Nursing Staff Employed in Polish Hospitals—Results of a Cross-Sectional Study

The debate on limiting futile therapy in the aspect of End of Life (EoL) care has been going on in Poland over the last decade. The growing demand for EoL care resulting from the aging of societies corresponds to the expectation of a satisfactory quality of life and self-determination. The authors d...

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Autores principales: Damps, Maria, Gajda, Maksymilian, Kowalska, Malgorzata, Kucewicz-Czech, Ewa
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9778965/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36554855
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192416975
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author Damps, Maria
Gajda, Maksymilian
Kowalska, Malgorzata
Kucewicz-Czech, Ewa
author_facet Damps, Maria
Gajda, Maksymilian
Kowalska, Malgorzata
Kucewicz-Czech, Ewa
author_sort Damps, Maria
collection PubMed
description The debate on limiting futile therapy in the aspect of End of Life (EoL) care has been going on in Poland over the last decade. The growing demand for EoL care resulting from the aging of societies corresponds to the expectation of a satisfactory quality of life and self-determination. The authors designed a cross-sectional study using a newly designed questionnaire to assess the opinions of 190 nurses employed in intensive care units (ICUs) on futile therapy, practices, and the respondents’ approach to the issue. The problem of futile therapy and its clinical implications are known to the nursing community. Among the most common reasons for undertaking futile therapy in adult patients, the respondents declared fear of legal liability for not taking such actions (71.58%), as well as fear of being accused of unethical conduct (56.32%), and fear of talking to the patient/patient’s family and their reaction (43.16%). In the case of adult patients, the respondents believed that discontinuation of futile therapy should be decided by the patient (84.21%), followed by a doctor (64.21%). As for paediatric patients, two-thirds of the respondents mentioned a doctor and a court (64.74% and 64.21%, respectively). Overall, 65.26% of the respondents believe and agree that the comfort of the patient’s last days is more important than the persistent continuation of therapy and prolonging life at all costs. The presented results clearly show the attitude of the respondents who defend the patient’s dignity and autonomy.
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spelling pubmed-97789652022-12-23 Limitation of Futile Therapy in the Opinion of Nursing Staff Employed in Polish Hospitals—Results of a Cross-Sectional Study Damps, Maria Gajda, Maksymilian Kowalska, Malgorzata Kucewicz-Czech, Ewa Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The debate on limiting futile therapy in the aspect of End of Life (EoL) care has been going on in Poland over the last decade. The growing demand for EoL care resulting from the aging of societies corresponds to the expectation of a satisfactory quality of life and self-determination. The authors designed a cross-sectional study using a newly designed questionnaire to assess the opinions of 190 nurses employed in intensive care units (ICUs) on futile therapy, practices, and the respondents’ approach to the issue. The problem of futile therapy and its clinical implications are known to the nursing community. Among the most common reasons for undertaking futile therapy in adult patients, the respondents declared fear of legal liability for not taking such actions (71.58%), as well as fear of being accused of unethical conduct (56.32%), and fear of talking to the patient/patient’s family and their reaction (43.16%). In the case of adult patients, the respondents believed that discontinuation of futile therapy should be decided by the patient (84.21%), followed by a doctor (64.21%). As for paediatric patients, two-thirds of the respondents mentioned a doctor and a court (64.74% and 64.21%, respectively). Overall, 65.26% of the respondents believe and agree that the comfort of the patient’s last days is more important than the persistent continuation of therapy and prolonging life at all costs. The presented results clearly show the attitude of the respondents who defend the patient’s dignity and autonomy. MDPI 2022-12-17 /pmc/articles/PMC9778965/ /pubmed/36554855 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192416975 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Damps, Maria
Gajda, Maksymilian
Kowalska, Malgorzata
Kucewicz-Czech, Ewa
Limitation of Futile Therapy in the Opinion of Nursing Staff Employed in Polish Hospitals—Results of a Cross-Sectional Study
title Limitation of Futile Therapy in the Opinion of Nursing Staff Employed in Polish Hospitals—Results of a Cross-Sectional Study
title_full Limitation of Futile Therapy in the Opinion of Nursing Staff Employed in Polish Hospitals—Results of a Cross-Sectional Study
title_fullStr Limitation of Futile Therapy in the Opinion of Nursing Staff Employed in Polish Hospitals—Results of a Cross-Sectional Study
title_full_unstemmed Limitation of Futile Therapy in the Opinion of Nursing Staff Employed in Polish Hospitals—Results of a Cross-Sectional Study
title_short Limitation of Futile Therapy in the Opinion of Nursing Staff Employed in Polish Hospitals—Results of a Cross-Sectional Study
title_sort limitation of futile therapy in the opinion of nursing staff employed in polish hospitals—results of a cross-sectional study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9778965/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36554855
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192416975
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