title: [Do advance directives facilitate the process of dying in dignity?].
abstract: The benefit of an advance directive was evaluated by written questionnaires and personal interviews with relatives, nurses and physicians of recently deceased patients. The results indicate that a written advance directive is less important than ongoing communication between relatives or a designated person of trust, physicians and nurses. A standard advance directive however is helpful to initiate the discussion about the last will of a person. A further result of this survey is, that physicians and nurses do not feel confident in decision making regarding treatment and care of the dying. A written advance directive or a designated person of trust helping decisions making in the presumptive will of the patient, is seen as helpful.
authors.affiliation: Hausarztpraxis Grahmann&Suter, Luzern. dsuter@svsl.ch
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Suter-Gut
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: van Spijk
mesh_terms: D016223:Advance Directives; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001293:Attitude to Death; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D007872:Legal Guardians; D012297:Right to Die; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013557:Switzerland