Physicians' End-of-Life Healthcare Decision-Making
Public Deposited- Last Modified
- February 26, 2019
- Creator
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Kaakour, Dalia
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Public Policy
- Abstract
- Through a qualitative approach, this thesis seeks to gain a better understanding of end-oflife healthcare decision-making among physicians as well as among non-physician elderly individuals. I investigate both attitudes and knowledge regarding advance directives, decision-making concerning end-of-life healthcare, and the patient-doctor relationship in order to understand why physicians make relatively more conservative end-of-life healthcare decisions than the general public does. Ten non-physician individuals living in retirement communities primarily in the Chapel Hill/Durham area and ten physicians of different specialties working in this region were interviewed. Using non-physician participants’ and physicians’ own words, this study explains the different factors important to these two groups in the end-of-life healthcare decision-making process. Results indicate that the current healthcare system regarding end-of-life healthcare defaults to life-prolonging treatments which non-physician individuals are generally ill-informed about and do not want. Physicians’ backgrounds and experiences greatly influence their personal decision-making and their ability to successfully navigate the healthcare system. Non-physicians and physicians did not desire heroic measures and the role of families was essential to both groups. These results suggest that non-physician individuals are generally not receiving the end-of-life circumstances they desire due to ineffectiveness of the PSDA and the unsuccessful implementation of advance directives as well as barriers in communication.
- Date of publication
- spring 2015
- Keyword
- DOI
- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Note
- Funding: None
- Advisor
- Perreira, Krista
- Degree
- Bachelor of Arts
- Honors level
- Honors
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Extent
- 51
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