Attitudes of Danish doctors and nurses to palliative and terminal care.

BACKGROUND: The WHO definitions of palliative care have been adopted in Denmark and implemented in The National Guidelines from 1999, but service developments have been very slow and not according to the recommendations. Attitudes to palliative care of Danish doctors and nurses may in part account for this.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the attitudes to issues related to palliative care of doctors and nurses in a Danish county hospital and the related primary care services.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey using a mailed, self-administered questionnaire answered anonymously.

PARTICIPANTS: Nurses and doctors employed in a county hospital in Denmark, homecare nurses and general practitioners from the related primary care services.

OUTCOME MEASURES: The responses from the groups were compared by chi2 statistics (where ordinal variables with chi2 for trend). Data were analysed using SPSS 10.0.

RESULTS: 347 responded, response rate 76%. Eighty-one per cent of all respondents were currently caring for terminally ill patient(s), 94% had done so within the last six months. Hospital doctors see more terminally ill patients than GPs (P = 0.002). Comparison of doctors (both hospital and GPs) with nurses showed that nurses were more likely to definitely agree that palliative/terminal care was a rewarding part of their work (61% 'definitely agree' versus 30%), and they were less likely to prefer to leave care of these patients to others (4% 'definitely/probably agree' versus 9%). Nurses reflected more on existential matters (80% 'definitely/probably agree' versus 63%) and were more likely to agree that dealing with a dying patient made them aware of their own feelings regarding death (97% 'definitely/probably agree' versus 80%). Only 7% of all respondents reported 'being an active member of a religious community'. Ninety-two per cent of all respondents agreed that doctors play a key role in reducing the suffering of dying patients, but 59% of nurses versus 9% of doctors 'definitely/probably agree' that 'it is primarily the task of nurses to deal with patients reactions to death'. There were significant differences between hospital doctors and GPs, with the former less likely to agree that palliative and terminal illness is rewarding, more likely to leave care of dying patients to others, and more likely to 'probably' or 'definitely agree' that it is more satisfying to work with patients who will improve. Home care nurses reflected more on existential matters than their hospital colleagues, and were more likely to 'definitely agree' that palliative/terminal care is rewarding. Differences between groups seemed to be due to profession (doctor versus nurse) and setting (hospital versus community) rather than age or gender.

CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that in Denmark nurses demonstrate more positive attitudes to the care of palliative/terminally ill patients than doctors, and that attitudes amongst doctors and nurses working in the community are more positive than those of the colleagues in hospitals. There is currently little education in the principles and practice of palliative care in Denmark. These findings will inform the development of appropriate palliative care education for doctors and nurses working both in the hospital and in the community in Denmark. They also raise the possibility that part of the inertia in the development of palliative care in Denmark is related to the lack of education and, in particular, to the need of support for doctors and nurses providing terminal care so they are enabled to be more reflective on the care they currently provide. There is evidence that education in palliative care can change health professionals' attitudes to palliative and terminal care, and this now needs to be investigated in Denmark.