Balancing professional tension and deciding upon the status of death: Making end-of-life decisions in intensive care units
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Konstantara, E
Vandrevala, T
Cox, A
Creagh-Brown, BC
Ogden, J
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
This study investigated how intensivists make decisions regarding withholding and withdrawing treatment for patients at the end of their lives. This involved completing in-depth interviews from two sites of the South of England, United Kingdom by twelve intensivists. The data collected by these intensivists were analysed using thematic analysis. This resulted in the identification of three themes: intensivists’ role, treatment effectiveness, and patients’ best interest. Transcending these were two overarching themes relating to the balance between quantity and quality of life, and the intensivists’ sense of responsibility versus burden. The results are considered in terms of making sense of death and the role of beliefs in the decision-making process.
Date Issued
2016-01-25
Date Acceptance
2016-01-25
Citation
Health Psychology Open, 2016, 3 (1)
ISSN
2055-1029
Publisher
SAGE Publications (UK and US)
Journal / Book Title
Health Psychology Open
Volume
3
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
License URL
Publication Status
Published