Concordance between Experiences of Bereaved Relatives, Physicians, and Nurses with Hospital End-of-Life Care: Everyone Has Their “Own Truth”

Table 2

General characteristics of patients, relatives, physicians, and nurses.

	(%)	Mean (SD)
Patients
Sex
Male	117 (59)
Female	83 (41)
Age (years)		69.0 (12.6)
Duration of final hospitalization (days)		13.7 (15.8)
Marital status
Married/living in partnership	129 (65)
Widowed/divorced/alone	71 (35)
Diagnosis of cancer	54
Ward
Acute palliative care (cancer center)	38 (19)
Neurology	31 (16)
Ear, nose, & throat diseases	20 (10)
Lung diseases	21 (11)
Medical oncology/geriatrics	18 (9)
Other	72 (36)
Treatment goal(s) at admission^a
Symptom control	121 (61)
Recovery or life prolongation	63 (32)
Diagnostics	7 (4)
Terminal care	10 (5)
Other	17 (9)
Relatives
Sex
Male	74 (37)
Female	124 (63)
Age (years)		57 (14.1)
Relation to patient
Spouse	99 (50)
Child	68 (34)
Other	28 (14)
Involved in care final days prior to death
Yes	176 (88)
No	24 (12)
Time between patient passing away and completion of questionnaire (weeks)		15.5 (4.0)
Physicians
Sex
Male	86 (37)
Female	112 (62)
Age (years)		30 (6.0)
Function
Attending physician on the ward	136 (68)
Attending physician (out of office hours)	38 (19)
Other	23 (12)
Number of dying patients cared for during previous 12 months
≤2	70 (35)
3–5	54 (27)
>5	74 (37)
Nurses
Sex
Male	18 (9)
Female	179 (90)
Age (yrs)		35 (12.3)
Number of dying patients cared for during previous 12 months
≤2	77 (39)
3–5	64 (32)
>5	55 (28)

More than one goal possible, percentage may be added up to >100%.