Consideration of hastening death among hospice patients and their families

The purpose of this study was to describe hospice social workers' perceptions of cases where hospice patients or their family members expressed a desire to hasten the patient's death. Surveys were mailed to hospice social workers (n=212) in two Southeastern states. Response rate was 36%. O...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of pain and symptom management 2004-06, Vol.27 (6), p.523-532
Main Authors: Arnold, Elizabeth Mayfield, Artin, Katherine Abbott, Person, Judi Lund, Griffith, Devin L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
assisted suicide
Attitude of Health Personnel
Attitude to Death
Attitude to Health
Bioethics
Biological and medical sciences
Family - psychology
Female
hastening death
Health Care Surveys - methods
Hospice Care - methods
Hospice Care - psychology
Hospice Care - statistics & numerical data
Hospices
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Neoplasms - epidemiology
Neoplasms - psychology
Pharmacology. Drug treatments
Social Work - statistics & numerical data
suicide
Suicide, Assisted - psychology
Suicide, Assisted - statistics & numerical data
symptom management
Terminal Care - methods
Terminal Care - psychology
Terminal Care - statistics & numerical data
Terminally Ill - psychology
Terminally Ill - statistics & numerical data
United States - epidemiology
unmet needs
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Summary:The purpose of this study was to describe hospice social workers' perceptions of cases where hospice patients or their family members expressed a desire to hasten the patient's death. Surveys were mailed to hospice social workers (n=212) in two Southeastern states. Response rate was 36%. Of the 73 respondents, 56.2% had a patient and 26.1% had a patient's family member express a desire to hasten the patient's death. Most patients had a cancer diagnosis (70.4%) and were predominantly male (66.6%), white (94.4%), and were married/had a partner (66.7%). Poor quality of life (28.3%) and concern for suffering (28.3%) were the most common reasons reported for the request to hasten death. These data suggest that the desire for hastened death is not uncommon among hospice patients. Social workers perceive these requests to be related primarily to unmet needs.
ISSN:0885-3924
1873-6513
DOI:10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2003.10.010