Chinese oncologists’ knowledge, attitudes and practice towards palliative care and end of life issues

BMC Medical Education

Table 4 Decision making and end of life issues

Q13-Q15 items	Yes		No		Not clearly
	N	%	N	%	N	%
Q13.Do you know what advanced directives (ADs) is?	37	26.8	69	50.0	32	23.2
Q14.Do you know what a do not resuscitate (DNR) order is?	26	18.8	80	58.0	32	23.2
Q15.Do you think you should follow a patient’s wish when he prefers to forgo life sustaining treatments?	75	54.3	9	6.5	54	39.1
Q16-Q17 items					N	%
Q16. Do you approve using CPR for terminally ill cancer patients?
Yes					10	7.2
No					47	34.1
It depends on the situation^b					81	58.7
Q17. ^aWhat factors do you believe will affect a patient and family’s decision?
A. Disease prognosis					99	71.7
B. Symptom burden					58	42.0
C. Other disease and comorbidities					67	48.6
D. Religious beliefs					75	54.3
E. Economic status					88	63.8
F. The patient’s own wishes/preferences					82	59.4
G. Past experiences with death					69	50.0
All selected					32	23.2
Q18-Q19
Q18. Should a conflict arise between the patient’s wishes and the family’s wishes in the decision-making process, who would you support?
Patients					73	52.9
Family					26	18.8
It depends on the situation^b					39	28.3
Q19. If the patient is no longer competent and the family’s wishes conflict with those previous expressed by the patient, who would you support?
Patients					53	38.4
Family					40	29.0
It depends on situation					45	32.6

^aQ17: Respondents could select more than one item in response. Thus, the percentages of Q6 add up to more than 100 % .^bIt depends on the situation meant to decide on a case-by-case basis by considering the physical and psychological conditions, religion, and the cultural background of each individual

ISSN: 1472-6920