Citation

Stängle S, Schnepp W, Büche D, Fringer A. GeroPsych (Bern) 2021; 34(2): 73-81.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Hogrefe Publishers)

DOI

10.1024/1662-9647/a000249

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Besides physician-Assisted suicide, there is another end-of-life practice under discussion: voluntary stopping of eating and drinking (VSED). In this study, we assess the occurrence of VSED in outpatient care and evaluate nurses attitudes about it. We recruited 395 nurses (24% response rate) in our online survey. The occurrence of VSED in Switzerland lies at 0.5%. Most nurses (84.6%) were aware of VSED, and 39.5% had experienced it with patients. VSED was mostly (70.3%) regarded as a natural death, and nearly all (95.1%) were willing to care for these patients; however, about one-quarter (26.5%) expressed moral concerns. Our results show that VSED occurs in rare cases, and that nurses are willing to accompany patients during this VSED, but express moral concerns. © 2021 Hogrefe Publishing GmbH. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

attitude; adult; human; morality; decision making; palliative care; nurse; article; controlled study; questionnaire; ambulatory care; drinking; terminal care; palliative therapy; Switzerland; outpatient care; eating; frequency; professional attitude; refusal of food and liquid; surveys and questionnaire; voluntary stopping of eating and drinking