Factors explaining variability among caregivers in the intent to restrict life-support interventions in a pediatric intensive care unit

Title

Factors explaining variability among caregivers in the intent to restrict life-support interventions in a pediatric intensive care unit

Creator

Randolph AG; Zollo MB; Wigton RS; Yeh TS

Publisher

Critical Care Medicine

Date

1997

Subject

Child; Cross-Sectional Studies; Humans; Intensive Care Units; Adult; Attitude of Health Personnel; Medical Staff; Prognosis; Questionnaires; Euthanasia; Life Support Care; Activities of Daily Living; Linear Models; Nursing Staff; Pediatric; Empirical Approach; Professional Patient Relationship; Death and Euthanasia; decision making; Family/psychology; ICU Decision Making; Intervention; Interventions; Passive; Hospital/psychology

Description

OBJECTIVE: To explore patient-related factors which influence the decisions of pediatric intensive care unit (ICU) caregivers to restrict life-support interventions. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: A university-affiliated pediatric ICU. SUBJECTS: All physicians and nurses caring for oncology or cardiology ICU patients. INTERVENTIONS: Seven patient characteristics were systematically presented in 16 theoretical case scenarios. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Individual linear regression models were constructed for each participant by calculating the importance caregivers placed on seven patient characteristics when deciding about starting intravenous vasopressors, performing chest compressions, and withdrawing life support. We compared the numerical and descriptive (very low, low, moderate, high) probability of survival. We surveyed 86 caregivers and 56 (65%) responded. The most important factors influencing decisions were family preferences (76% of decisions), followed by probability of survival (50%), and functional status (47%). There was marked variability among respondents in 38 (79%)/48 of the questions; 20% to 50% of caregivers chose opposing directions of patient management when they were asked to indicate the likelihood that they would perform a specific life-support intervention. The same term was never used by all respondents to describe the probability of survival for a scenario. CONCLUSION: Critically ill children and their families could face markedly different attitudes about the restriction of life-support interventions, depending on which nurses and physicians are involved in their care.
1997

Rights

Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).

Type

Journal Article

Citation List Month

Backlog

Citation

Randolph AG; Zollo MB; Wigton RS; Yeh TS, “Factors explaining variability among caregivers in the intent to restrict life-support interventions in a pediatric intensive care unit,” Pediatric Palliative Care Library, accessed March 19, 2024, https://pedpalascnetlibrary.omeka.net/items/show/12011.