Families stall end of life talks, say doctors. True?

The author cites a recent JAMA Internal Medicine article on physician- and nursing-reported barriers to end-of-life decision making. The study found that surveyed clinicians identified patient and caregiver reluctance to discuss as well as patient and caregiver lack of understanding of these issues as their primary obstacles to successful discussion of end-of-life issues in an ICU setting; however, they also noted that no more than 35% of any group of respondents reported receiving professional education in how to have impactful discussions in this area.

The author shares ideas on addressing the disconnect between stakeholders, including improving end-of-life training for front-line healthcare professionals, a shift in the media’s portrayal of these issues as well as improvements in research allowing clinicians to pinpoint end-of-life outcomes with increased accuracy.