Differences between attendings' and fellows' perceptions of futile treatment in the intensive care unit at one academic health center: implications for training.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Knowing when patients are too ill to benefit from intensive care is essential for clinicians to recommend aggressive or palliative care as appropriate. To explore prognostic ability among critical care fellows, the authors compared fellows' and attendings' assessments of futile critical care and evaluated factors associated with assessments.

Method

Thirty-six attendings and 14 fellows in intensive care units at the University of California, Los Angeles, were surveyed daily for three months (December 2011-March 2012) to identify patients perceived as receiving futile treatment. Frequency of futile treatment assessments and reasons listed by attendings versus fellows were compared. Predictors of futile treatment assessments by provider type were assessed using multivar

SUBMITTER: Neville TH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4339400 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature