Faculty of Health, Department of Nursing Science, Witten/Herdecke University, Witten, Germany.
School of Health Professions, Institute of Nursing, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Winterthur, Switzerland.
J Int Med Res. 2020 Aug;48(8):300060520936069. doi: 10.1177/0300060520936069.
We aimed to determine how often patients who choose voluntary stopping of eating and drinking (VSED) are accompanied by Swiss family physicians, how physicians classify this process, and physicians' attitudes and professional stance toward VSED.
We conducted a cross-sectional study between August 2017 and July 2018 among 751 practicing family physicians in Switzerland (response rate 74%; 70.7% men; average age 58 (±9) years). We used a standardized evidence-based questionnaire for the survey.
VSED is well-known among family physicians (81.9%), and more than one-third (42.8%) had accompanied at least one patient during VSED. In 2017, 1.1% of all deaths that occurred in Swiss nursing homes or in a private home were owing to VSED. This phenomenon was classified as a natural dying process (59.3%), passive euthanasia (32.0%), or suicide (5.3%).
Although about one in three Swiss family physicians have accompanied a person during VSED, family physicians lack sufficient in-depth knowledge to address patients and their relatives in an appropriate manner during the process. Further training and development of practice recommendations are needed to achieve more standardized accompaniment of VSED. DERR1-10.2196/10358.
我们旨在确定选择自愿停止进食和饮水（VSED）的患者有多少是由瑞士家庭医生陪同的，医生如何对这一过程进行分类，以及医生对 VSED 的态度和专业立场。
我们在 2017 年 8 月至 2018 年 7 月期间对瑞士的 751 名执业家庭医生进行了横断面研究（应答率为 74%；70.7%为男性；平均年龄 58（±9）岁）。我们使用了标准化的基于证据的问卷进行调查。
VSED 在家庭医生中广为人知（81.9%），超过三分之一（42.8%）的家庭医生曾在 VSED 期间陪同过至少一名患者。2017 年，瑞士养老院或私人住宅中发生的所有死亡病例中，有 1.1%是由于 VSED 所致。这种现象被归类为自然死亡过程（59.3%）、被动安乐死（32.0%）或自杀（5.3%）。
尽管约三分之一的瑞士家庭医生在 VSED 期间曾陪同过患者，但家庭医生缺乏足够的深入知识，无法在这一过程中以适当的方式为患者及其家属提供帮助。需要进一步的培训和制定实践建议，以实现对 VSED 的更标准化的陪伴。DERR1-10.2196/10358。
