Table 3 Acceptable approaches of limiting intensive care
Total | Physicians | Nurses | p-value | German speaking area | French speaking area | p-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Administering sedatives and/or analgesics to suppress pain even if this might cause respiratory depression and death | 95.1 (92.4–96.8) | 96.8 (91.0–98.9) | 94.5 (91.2–96.6) | 0.367 | 94.9 (91.5–96.9) | 95.5 (90.0–98.1) | 0.779 |
Withholding emergency treatment/manoeuvres | 94.9 (92.2–96.6) | 100.0 (96.1–100.0) | 93.2 (89.7–95.6) | 0.009 | 93.9 (90.4–96.1) | 97.3 (92.4–99.1) | 0.162 |
Withholding surgery | 94.0 (91.1–96.0) | 100.0 (96.0–100.0) | 92.0 (88.3–94.6) | 0.005 | 93.0 (89.3–95.5) | 96.4 (91.1–98.6) | 0.204 |
Withdrawing life-saving drugs | 93.5 (90.6–95.6) | 97.9 (92.6–99.4) | 92.1 (88.4–94.7) | 0.048 | 93.5 (89.9–95.8) | 93.6 (87.3–96.9) | 0.965 |
Withdrawing mechanical ventilation | 91.2 (87.9–93.6) | 97.8 (92.4–99.4) | 89.1 (85.0–92.2) | 0.010 | 90.9 (86.9–93.7) | 91.9 (85.3–95.7) | 0.751 |
Continuing current treatment, but without adding others | 89.6 (86.1–92.3) | 98.9 (93.9–99.8) | 86.7 (82.3–90.2) | 0.001 | 87.5 (83.0–91.0) | 94.6 (88.7–97.5) | 0.040 |
Withholding intensive care | 87.4 (83.7–90.4) | 100.0 (96.1–100.0) | 83.3 (78.6–87.2) | < 0.001 | 84.6 (79.9–88.4) | 94.5 (88.5–97.5) | 0.009 |
Withholding antibiotics | 70.6 (65.8–75.0) | 80.4 (71.2–87.3) | 67.4 (61.7–72.6) | 0.017 | 69.8 (64.0–75.0) | 72.6 (63.5–80.2) | 0.589 |
Refraining from increasing the respirator parameters | 69.7 (64.9–74.1) | 80.2 (70.9–87.1) | 66.3 (60.6–71.6) | 0.012 | 66.2 (60.2–71.6) | 78.2 (69.6–84.9) | 0.021 |
Withholding full parenteral nutrition | 55.9 (50.7–60.9) | 75.0 (65.3–82.7) | 49.5 (43.6–55.3) | < 0.001 | 54.4 (48.3–60.3) | 59.4 (49.9–68.3) | 0.380 |
Withholding tube feeding | 31.9 (27.3–36.8) | 45.2 (35.0–55.9) | 27.9 (22.9–33.4) | 0.003 | 33.6 (28.1–39.5) | 27.5 (19.7–36.8) | 0.260 |
Administering drugs with the explicit purpose to hasten death | 24.4 (20.2–29.2) | 18.2 (11.5–27.5) | 26.5 (21.5–32.2) | 0.115 | 22.1 (17.5–27.6) | 30.5 (22.2–40.4) | 0.105 |
Administering drugs with the purpose of ending the patient’s life | 16.9 (13.4–21.2) | 14.0 (8.2–22.8) | 17.9 (13.8–22.9) | 0.395 | 15.1 (11.3–20.0) | 21.9 (14.8–31.1) | 0.132 |