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Variation in end‐of‐life decision making between critical care consultants *
Author(s) -
Poulton B.,
Ridley S.,
MackenzieRoss R.,
Rizvi S.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
anaesthesia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.839
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1365-2044
pISSN - 0003-2409
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2044.2005.04333.x
Subject(s) - variation (astronomy) , medicine , personality , end of life care , consistency (knowledge bases) , medical decision making , unit (ring theory) , intensive care unit , nursing , palliative care , family medicine , social psychology , psychology , psychiatry , physics , geometry , mathematics , mathematics education , astrophysics
Summary Considerable variation in end‐of‐life decision making is reported between intensive care units in the United Kingdom, possibly because of differences in casemix. Senior medical staff within any one unit should, however, be consistent in such decision making. We reviewed the medical records for a 4‐year period to establish if there was consistency in our own unit. This revealed considerable variation in the apparent willingness of consultants to make end‐of‐life decisions, emphasising the subjective nature of these decisions. Personality typing (Myers‐Briggs Type Indicator) of consultants revealed that those who had made more than the expected number of decisions had scores towards the judging end of the judging/perceiving domain.