Article

Life-sustaining treatment decisions: a social work response to meet needs of health care surrogates.

University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida 32816, USA.
Journal of Social Work in End-of-Life & Palliative Care 01/2010; 6(1-2):27-50. DOI:10.1080/15524256.2010.489221
Source: PubMed

ABSTRACT Surrogates must possess essential patient information prior to legitimately exercising legal and moral obligations to act on patients' medical care preferences. This descriptive, in vivo study examined factors influencing surrogate and proxy decisions (N = 132) following life-sustaining treatment decisions. Patient communication and self-efficacy variables accounted for approximately 38% of the variance in surrogates' perceptions of benefits/barriers associated with decision making. Guided by patients' advanced communication, respondents (97.8%) expressed high self-reliance and significant appreciation of benefits associated with their decisions. Clarifying surrogates' and providers' understanding of patient care preferences during ICU/CCU admission may facilitate better adherence to patient wishes.

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Keywords

Clarifying surrogates'
 
descriptive
 
essential patient information
 
factors influencing surrogate
 
ICU/CCU admission
 
patient care preferences
 
Patient communication
 
patient wishes
 
patients'
 
patients' medical care preferences
 
providers' understanding
 
significant appreciation
 
Surrogates
 
surrogates' perceptions
 
variance
 
vivo study