WATCH ABOVE: Dr. Greg Robinson, a board member of Dying with Dignity, says it’s a shame that American Brittany Maynard had to move in order to have an assisted suicide and hopes Canada will change our laws to allow it. Sean Mallen reports.
TORONTO – Listen to their preferences, consider their values and address their fears and concerns. It sounds almost intuitive and yet these topics are often overlooked when talking to patients about their end-of-life care, according to new Canadian research.
Canadian doctors at McMaster University say that there are gaps between what patients would like and what they receive when it comes to the care seriously ill patients receive in their final days.
“Our findings could be used to identify important opportunities to improve end-of-life communication and decision-making in the hospital setting,” Dr. John You, the study’s lead author, said.
In his team’s research, published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, the doctors identify five subjects that are key priorities to patients and their families.
READ MORE: Majority of Canadians support assisted dying, poll says
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Right now, current guidelines point to 11 important elements that health care providers need to touch on, but they’re based on expert opinion without patients weighing in.
In You’s research, he sought feedback from patients admitted to nine different hospitals in B.C., Alberta, Ontario and Quebec. More than 230 adults in hospital with a serious illness and 205 family members were involved in the study.
The Top 5 things to discuss in end-of-life care according to the study’s participants were:
- preferences of care in event of life-threatening illness
- patient values
- prognosis of illness
- fears or concerns
- additional questions regarding care
The trouble is, the patients said that these subjects are often overlooked. Even among the 11 key elements, about 1.4 are addressed with the health care team.
You’s hoping that his findings will help improve end-of-life care for patients in hospital. It’s becoming a hot-button issue as some patients are attempting to take their end-of-life care into their own hands.
READ MORE: Brittany Maynard, diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, ends her life
On Sunday, Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old American woman diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, ended her life, according to a post on her website.
Maynard was diagnosed with brain cancer in January. But after doctors told her in April that she had six months left to live – and that her last days would be painful – Maynard and her family moved from their home in the San Francisco Bay Area to Oregon, one of five states that have passed the Death with Dignity Act.
Her website says she passed away in a “little yellow house” in the city of Portland.
carmen.chai@globalnews.ca
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