Factors associated with nurse assessment of the quality of dying and death in the intensive care unit*
Critical Care MedicinePublished 1 August 2004
Naomi M. Hodde, Ruth A. Engelberg, Patsy D. Treece, Kenneth P. Steinberg, J. Randall Curtis
Citations112
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score2.12
SNIP2.15
Generate an AI Snapshot to get a quick, structured summary of this paper.
Study Snapshot
ObjectiveStudy objective
MethodsResearch methodology
PopulationPopulation studied
Sample sizeSample sizes
OutcomesStudy outcomes here
ResultsStudy results comes here
LimitationsResearch study limitations comes here
A concise AI-generated summary of the paper will appear here once you click Generate AI Snapshot.
TL;DR
Evidence is provided of some potential targets for interventions to improve the quality of dying for some patients: having someone present at the moment of death and not having cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the last 8 hrs of life.
Abstract
Intensive care unit nurse assessment of quality of dying and death is a feasible method for obtaining quality ratings. Based on nurse assessments, this study provides evidence of some potential targets for interventions to improve the quality of dying for some patients: having someone present at the moment of death and not having cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the last 8 hrs of life. If nurse-assessed quality of dying is to be a useful tool for measuring and improving quality of end-of-life care, it is important to understand the factors associated with nurse ratings.
Keywords
PsychologyMedicineHealth Professions
JAMAA controlled trial to improve care for seriously ill hospitalized patients. The study to understand prognoses and preferences for outcomes and risks of treatments (SUPPORT). The SUPPORT Principal Investigators
2,779 Citations1995Alfred F. Connors, Neal V. Dawson +198 more
The phase I observation of SUPPORT confirmed substantial shortcomings in care for seriously ill hospitalized adults and the phase II intervention failed to improve care or patient outcomes.
JAMAFactors Considered Important at the End of Life by Patients, Family, Physicians, and Other Care Providers
2,477 Citations2000Karen E. Steinhauser
Although pain and symptom management, communication with one's physician, preparation for death, and the opportunity to achieve a sense of completion are important to most, other factors important to quality at the end of life differ by role and by individual.
Critical Care MedicineUse of intensive care at the end of life in the United States: An epidemiologic study*
1,155 Citations2004Derek C. Angus, Amber E. Barnato +5 more
One in five Americans die using ICU services and the doubling of persons over the age of 65 yrs by 2030 will require a system-wide expansion in ICU care for dying patients unless the healthcare system pursues rationing, more effective advanced care planning, and augmented capacity to care for Dying patients in other settings.
Annals of Internal MedicineIn Search of a Good Death: Observations of Patients, Families, and Providers
1,133 Citations2000Karen E. Steinhauser, Elizabeth C. Clipp +4 more
This study describes the attributes of a good death, as understood by various participants in end-of-life care, and compared the perspectives of different groups of persons who had experienced death in their personal or professional lives.
JAMAEnd-of-Life Practices in European Intensive Care Units
1,053 Citations2003Charles L. Sprung, Simon Cohen +12 more
The limiting of life-sustaining treatment in European ICUs is common and variable and clarity between withdrawing therapies and shortening of the Dying process and between therapies intended to relieve pain and suffering and those intended to shorten the dying process may be lacking.
Critical Care MedicineSymptoms of anxiety and depression in family members of intensive care unit patients: Ethical hypothesis regarding decision-making capacity
707 Citations2001Frédéric Pochard, Elie Azoulay +9 more
Characterization of symptoms that reflect anxiety and depression in family members visiting intensive care patients should be of major relevance to the ethics of involving family members in decision-making, particularly about end-of-life issues.
JAMAEffect of Ethics Consultations on Nonbeneficial Life-Sustaining Treatments in the Intensive Care Setting
647 Citations2003Lawrence J. Schneiderman, Todd Gilmer +9 more
Ethics consultations in the intensive care setting were useful in resolving conflicts that may have inappropriately prolonged nonbeneficial or unwanted treatments in the ICU.
American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care MedicineA National Survey of End-of-life Care for Critically Ill Patients
646 Citations1998Thomas J. Prendergast, Michaël Claessens +1 more
Limitation of life support prior to death is the predominant practice in American ICUs associated with critical care training programs, and there is wide variation in end-of-life care.
The American Journal of MedicineAn intensive communication intervention for the critically ill
509 Citations2000Craig M. Lilly, Dawn L De Meo +5 more
Intensive communication was associated with a reduction in critical care use by patients who died and the intervention, which allowed dying patients earlier access to palliative care, was not associated with increased mortality.
Critical Care MedicineFamily satisfaction with care in the intensive care unit: Results of a multiple center study*
459 Citations2002Daren K. Heyland, Graeme Rocker +7 more
Most family members were highly satisfied with the care provided to them and their critically ill relative in the intensive care unit, and efforts to improve the nature of interactions and communication with families are likely to lead to improvements in satisfaction.
Critical Care MedicineSelf-reported symptom experience of critically ill cancer patients receiving intensive care
455 Citations2001Judith E. Nelson, Diane E. Meier +6 more
Among critically ill cancer patients, multiple distressing symptoms were common in the ICU, often at significant levels of severity, and Symptom assessment may suggest more effective strategies for symptom control and may direct decisions about appropriate use of ICU therapies.
Journal of Pain and Symptom ManagementA Measure of the Quality of Dying and Death
437 Citations2002J. Randall Curtis, Donald L. Patrick +4 more
Clinicians caring for dying patients should focus on improving communication with the patient and family and improving symptom assessment and treatment and the potential role of the QODD in improving the quality of the dying experience.
New England Journal of MedicineWithdrawal of Mechanical Ventilation in Anticipation of Death in the Intensive Care Unit
431 Citations2003Fadi Hammal, Graeme Rocker +14 more
The strongest determinants of the withdrawal of ventilation in critically ill patients were the physician's perception that the patient preferred not to use life support, the physicians' predictions of a low likelihood of survival in the intensive care unit and a high likelihood of poor cognitive function, and the use of inotropes or vasopressors.
Critical Care MedicineQuality indicators for end-of-life care in the intensive care unit*
382 Citations2003Ellen B. Clarke, J. Randall Curtis +5 more
These EOLC domains and the associated quality indicators, developed through a consensus process, provide clinicians and researchers with a framework for understanding quality of E OLC in the intensive care unit.
JAMADeterminants in Canadian Health Care Workers of the Decision to Withdraw Life Support From the Critically Ill
368 Citations1995Richard J. Cook
Journal of Pain and Symptom ManagementEvaluating the Quality of Dying and Death
353 Citations2001Donald L. Patrick, Ruth A. Engelberg +1 more
The proposed model uses personal preferences about the dying experience to inform evaluation of this experience by others after death, and will guide validation of after-death reports of the quality of dying experience and evaluation of interventions to improve quality of end-of-life care.
CHEST JournalImpact of a Proactive Approach to Improve End-of-Life Care in a Medical ICU
352 Citations2003Margaret Campbell, Jorge A. Guzmán
Proactive interventions from a palliative care consultant within this subset of patients decreased the use of nonbeneficial resources and avoided protracted dying.
American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care MedicineDiscrepancies between Perceptions by Physicians and Nursing Staff of Intensive Care Unit End-of-Life Decisions
311 Citations2003Édouard Ferrand, François Lemaire +12 more
Perceptions by nursing staff may be a reliable indicator of the quality of medical decision-making processes and may serve as a simple and effective tool for evaluating everyday practice.
Annals of Internal MedicineMeasuring and Improving the Quality of Dying and Death
171 Citations2003Donald L. Patrick, J Randall Curtis +3 more
An operational definition of quality of dying is proposed: the degree to which a person's preferences for dying and the moment of death are consistent with others' observations of how the person actually died.
Critical Care MedicineEvaluation of a standardized order form for the withdrawal of life support in the intensive care unit*
150 Citations2004Patsy D. Treece, Ruth A. Engelberg +6 more
Although the order form was helpful to clinicians and changed medication delivery, demonstrating clear improvements in quality of dying may require larger sample sizes, more sensitive measures, or more effective interventions.
AIDS CareA good death: A qualitative study of patients with advanced AIDS
106 Citations2002Cassie Pierson, J. Randall Curtis +1 more
A better understanding of these domains may enable clinicians to more fully appreciate the experiences of their dying patients and identify ways to improve the care they provide at the end of life.
Journal of the American Geriatrics SocietyPain and Suffering in Seriously Ill Hospitalized Patients
102 Citations2000Norman A. Desbiens, Albert W. Wu
This study evaluated pain and other symptoms in seriously ill and older hospitalized patients with a high prevalence of pain in hospitalized patients to identify patients at high risk of experiencing pain.
Critical Care MedicineEnd-of-life care in the intensive care unit: A research agenda
98 Citations2001Gordon D. Rubenfeld, J. Randall Curtis
A Working Group of experts in critical care, palliative medicine, medical ethics, and medical law is convened to address the question “What research needs to be done to improve end-of-life care to patients in the ICU?
Journal of Critical CareIntensive care nurses' and physicians' experiences with demands for treatment: Some implications for clinical practice
36 Citations2003Stephen Workman, Patricia McKeever +2 more
An empiric description of intensive care unit (ICU) physicians' and nurses' experiences providing life-sustaining treatments at the insistence of family members, treatments that they believed should have been withheld or withdrawn is developed.
Critical Care MedicineBiosynthesis of constitutive nitric oxide synthase-derived nitric oxide attenuates coronary vasoconstriction and myocardial depression in a model of septic heart failure induced by Staphylococcus aureus α-toxin
24 Citations2001Ulrich Grandel, Ulf Sibelius +10 more
Staphylococcal &agr;-toxin provokes NO biosynthesis via activation of cNOS in rat hearts and partly antagonizes the deleterious effects of this pathogenicity factor on coronary vasoregulation and myocardial performance.