Palliative Care Nursing Clinical Trial
Official title:
Caregivers Confronted With the Withdrawal of Artificial Nutrition at the End of Life: Perception and Experienced Difficulties
Withdrawing artificial nutrition in palliative care is an issue that often leads to ethical dilemmas among health care providers, despite clinical guidelines.
The benefit of artificial nutrition in terminally ill patients has been a highly debated
issue for the past 30 years, and abundant data are available regarding its effects on
patients. Several clinical guidelines have specified the criteria to be considered before
initiating artificial nutrition or hydration. If these guidelines appear consensual in
theory, the situation is much less straightforward in practice. The attitude of physicians
appeared very variable when it came to prescribing or withholding artificial nutrition or
hydration, and the lack of training, among other parameters, seemingly encouraged health
care professionals to prescribe artificial nutrition or hydration. Furthermore, the decision
of the care provider is unconsciously complicated due to figurative representations
associated with food regarding, among other aspects, the mother-child relationship, social
cohesion, or religious beliefs.
These differences are more important since the opinion of physicians and nurses is the one
that carries the most influence on the patients' decision when deciding to initiate
artificial nutrition and because artificial nutrition and hydration are a common source of
ethical dilemmas in health care teams. Furthermore, stopping artificial nutrition or
hydration could be misconstrued as euthanasia.
;
Observational Model: Cohort, Time Perspective: Prospective