Factors affecting life-sustaining treatment decisions by health care surrogates and proxies: assessing benefits and barriers.
Terri Schiavo's life and death placed international focus on social workers' need to better understand and serve health care surrogates and proxies making life-sustaining treatment decisions on behalf of medical patients. This study (N = 132) reports initial validation of a new measure, the Acceptance of Treatment Choice Inventory (ATCI), designed to evaluate benefits and barriers considered by health care surrogates and proxies prior to making a life-sustaining treatment decision about CPR, tube-feedings, dialysis, and ventilation. Affirming a two-factor model with acceptable reliability and preliminary construct validity, surrogates sought decision support and desired to represent patients' wishes adequately.
Buckey
Julia W
JW
School of Social Work, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, USA. jwbuckey@eartlink.net
Abell
Neil
N
D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D019727:Proxy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D020458:Third-Party Consent; D028761:Withholding Treatment