The Care of Terminally Ill Patients

Changes in the management of terminally ill patients, resulting from advances in technology and alterations in the financing of medical practice, had been causing a reexamination of attitudes towards their care.

Abstract

Abrief questionnaire concerning the care of terminally ill patients was distributed to all physicians in the state of Iowa. It was the opinion of its authors that changes in the management of such patients, resulting from advances in technology and alterations in the financing of medical practice, had been causing a reexamination of attitudes towards their care. It was, therefore, the aim of the survey to determine the existing attitudes of Iowa physicians towards the treatment of this group of patients. Three thousand two hundred questionnaires were distributed and resulted in 1,600 replies.1Comments were invited and 20% of those who responded expressed their views on the subject of the questionnaire. Their replies revealed a deep concern for the problems of dying patients. Even more, they gave moving expression to the art of medicine and to wisdom gained through years of experience with patients for whom the science of