Journal article
Death notification in the emergency department: a survey of residents and attending physicians
Annals of emergency medicine, v 22(8), pp 1319-1323
1993
PMID: 8333638
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
To delineate the topics discussed with families during the death notification process and to identify which of these topics are stressful to the physician. Also, the survey served as a needs assessment in designing an educational program for emergency medicine residents in death notification.
Forty-five residents and 20 attendings physicians in emergency medicine at the Medical College of Pennsylvania were given an anonymous, self-administered, 47-item questionnaire eeking demographic information and assessing topics discussed during notification, perceived importance to the family of these topics, and the stressfulness of these topics.
One hundred percent of the participants responded to the survey. Hospital care, prehospital care, and cause of death were most often discussed with the family, although no topic was discussed 100% of the time by all physicians. Those items that may be perceived as emotionally charged, such as organ donation and autopsy, were rated as more stressful and were less frequently addressed during notification.
Factual information is discussed most often, and emotional issues are considered most stressful. Therefore, a program in death notification must address those issues that must be handled during a notification and provide mechanisms for residents to feel comfortable with emotional responses from the family.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- Death notification in the emergency department: a survey of residents and attending physicians
- Creators
- Loice A Swisher - Department of Emergency Medicine, Medical College Hospitals, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Linda Z Nieman - Department of Medical Education, Medical College Hospitals, Main Clinical Campus, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USAGwendolyn J Nilsen - Department of Emergency Medicine, Medical College Hospitals, Main Clinical Campus, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USAWilliam H Spivey - Department of Emergency Medicine, Medical College Hospitals, Main Clinical Campus, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- Publication Details
- Annals of emergency medicine, v 22(8), pp 1319-1323
- Publisher
- Mosby, Inc
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Emergency Medicine
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:A1993LN98900017
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-0027304550
- Other Identifier
- 991019184280704721
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Web of Science research areas
- Emergency Medicine