Physicians' attitudes toward medical and ethical challenges for patients in the vegetative state: comparing Canadian and German perspectives in a vignette survey

Détails

ID Serval
serval:BIB_1E7BA6580C39
Type
Article: article d'un périodique ou d'un magazine.
Collection
Publications
Titre
Physicians' attitudes toward medical and ethical challenges for patients in the vegetative state: comparing Canadian and German perspectives in a vignette survey
Périodique
BMC Neurol
Auteur⸱e⸱s
Kuehlmeyer K., Palmour N., Riopelle R. J., Bernat J. L., Jox R. J., Racine E.
ISSN
1471-2377 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
1471-2377
Statut éditorial
Publié
Date de publication
2014
Volume
14
Pages
119
Langue
anglais
Notes
Kuehlmeyer, Katja
Palmour, Nicole
Riopelle, Richard J
Bernat, James L
Jox, Ralf J
Racine, Eric
eng
Canadian Institutes of Health Research/Canada
Case Reports
Comparative Study
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
England
2014/06/06 06:00
BMC Neurol. 2014 Jun 5;14:119. doi: 10.1186/1471-2377-14-119.
Résumé
BACKGROUND: Physicians treating patients in the vegetative state (VS) must deal with uncertainty in diagnosis and prognosis, as well as ethical issues. We examined whether physicians' attitudes toward medical and ethical challenges vary across two national medical practice settings. METHODS: A comparative survey was conducted among German and Canadian specialty physicians, based on a case vignette about the VS. Similarities and differences of participants' attitudes toward medical and ethical challenges between the two samples were analyzed with non-parametric tests (Mann-Whitney-U-Test). RESULTS: The overall response rate was 13.4%. Eighty percent of all participants correctly applied the diagnostic category of VS with no significant differences between countries. Many of the participants who chose the correct diagnosis of VS attributed capabilities to the patient, particularly the ability to feel pain (70%), touch (51%) and to experience hunger and thirst (35%). A large majority of participants (94%) considered the limitation of life-sustaining treatment (LST) under certain circumstances, but more Canadian participants were in favor of always limiting LST (32% vs. 12%; Chi-square: p < 0.001). Finding long-term care placement was considered more challenging by Canadian participants whereas discontinuing LST was much more challenging for German participants. CONCLUSIONS: Differences were found between two national medical practice settings with respect to physicians' experiences and attitudes about treatment limitation about VS in spite of comparable diagnostic knowledge.
Mots-clé
Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, *Attitude of Health Personnel, Canada, Cohort Studies, Culture, Female, Germany, Health Care Surveys, Heart Arrest/therapy, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Persistent Vegetative State/*therapy, Physicians, Religion, Surveys and Questionnaires, Young Adult
Pubmed
Open Access
Oui
Création de la notice
14/07/2017 9:09
Dernière modification de la notice
20/08/2019 12:54
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