Aggressive End-of-Life Care and Caregiver Satisfaction for Patients With Advanced Cancer.
Sumin Park, Sara L Douglas, Barbara Boveington-Molter and 1 others
PMID 37981723WHAT IT FOUND
Caregivers of patients with advanced cancer reported lower satisfaction with end-of-life care if the patient had an ICU admission or more than one hospitalization in the last 30 days of life.
Avoiding these aggressive interventions may improve caregiver experience.
Key findings
01Lower caregiver satisfaction with care was significantly related to patient ICU admission and having at least one hospitalization within the last 30 days of life.
02Caregivers of patients with more than one hospitalization had significantly lower satisfaction scores compared to those with zero or one hospitalizations.
03Caregivers of patients who had an ICU admission reported significantly lower satisfaction scores compared to those whose patients did not have an ICU admission.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study used convenience sampling, which limits the generalizability of the results. More than 90% of the patients had stage IV cancer, so findings may not apply to earlier stages. Three indicators of aggressive care (new chemotherapy, multiple ED visits, and IV chemotherapy near death) were excluded from the regression analysis because there was insufficient variability in the data. A single research assistant conducted all interviews, which introduces the potential for bias. The regression model explained only 10% of the variance in caregiver satisfaction, indicating that many other factors influence satisfaction that were not measured.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that avoiding aggressive care guarantees high caregiver satisfaction. The statistical model explained only 10% of the variation in satisfaction scores, meaning that ICU admission and hospitalization frequency are just two of many factors influencing a caregiver's experience.