Do professional experience and qualification influence knowledge about law concerning informed consent and end-of-life decisions? A quantitative online survey among German intensive care physicians.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Recently, legal questions have increasingly arisen in intensive care medicine (ICM), especially when it comes to end-of-life decisions. Still, for Europe, there is not much evidence about doctors' situational legal knowledge and legal education during medical studies and further qualification. The present study was initiated to analyse these hitherto unexplored aspects in Germany.

Design

A quantitative online survey has been performed among German intensive care physicians. The voluntary participants of the anonymous online survey were asked to answer legal questions related to end-of-life policies, informed consent, surrogate decision making or advance directives. We tested pure factual knowledge in five questions. The other five questions tested situational know

SUBMITTER: Schumann C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12713176 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature