American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine®

 

Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (OnlineFirst PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
1049909107300213v1
24/5/366    most recent
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Bolmsjö, I. A.
Right arrow Articles by Löfmark, R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Bolmsjö, I. A.
Right arrow Articles by Löfmark, R.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
First published on June 29, 2007, doi:10.1177/1049909107300213

American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine® 2007;24:366.

A more recent version of this article appeared on November 1, 2007

Article

From Cure to Palliation: Agreement, Timing, and Decision Making Within the Staff

Ingrid Ågren Bolmsjö, PhD*, Tore Nilstun, PhD1, Rurik Löfmark, MD, PhD2

1 Department of Medical Ethics, Lund University
2 Centre for Bioethics at Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Ingrid.Agren-Bolmsjo{at}hs.mah.se.


  Abstract
Important issues in the transition from curative treatment to palliative care are agreement, timing, and decision making. A survey of 309 nurses and 415 physicians in Sweden showed that 61% of the nurses and 83% of the physicians thought agreement was current practice. None said that the decisions were made too early, but 19% of the nurses and 14% of the physicians thought that they often were made too late. Very few respondents stated that such decisions are changed, 0% and 1%, respectively. More than half of the informants made detailed comments on such transitions indicating that awareness and flexibility are desirable to make well-informed decisions. Three themes that emerged from the analysis concerning the decision to stop curative treatment and focus on palliative care were that the staff members should (if possible) make such decisions in agreement and should sometimes make the decisions earlier and that well-based reasons are required to make changes.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?