title: [Knowledge and attitudes about advance directives on physicians and nurses].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe and compare the knowledge and attitudes of the physicians and nurses towards the advance directives.
  
  
  METHODS
  A descriptive, cross-sectional pilot study.
  
  
  METHODS
  East healthcare area of the Community of Madrid (Spain)
  
  
  METHODS
  Primary care and specialized care physicians and nurses.
  
  
  METHODS
  Questionnaire about knowledge, use and attitudes from the healthcare professionals over the advance directives given, with dichotomous and Likert scale (0-10) variables.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Replies were received from a total of 192 physicians and nurses (response rate=83,4%), 72,4% were women and 27,6% were men. The mean age was 39,6 years (SD=10,86). For general knowledge on advance directives the median was 5 (RI=3-7). 60,1% were aware of the regulation by law, but only 22,8% had read the document.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The knowledge of physicians and nurses on advance directives is low, so it is necessary to improve this knowledge. Physicians and nurses from both levels show positive attitude towards the use and usefulness and respect the contents of advance directive. The methodology proposed is efficient to implement in a larger study, but should improve the distribution and collection of questionnaires.
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Enfermería y Fisioterapia, Universidad de Alcalá, Madrid, España. Electronic address: rafael.toro@uah.es.
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Toro Flores
authors.forename: Agustín
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Silva Mato
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Piga Rivero
authors.forename: María Teresa
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Alfonso Galán
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016223:Advance Directives; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009726:Nurses; D010820:Physicians; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Advance directives; Bioethics; Bioética; Health care directives; Instrucciones previas; Living wills; Testamentos vitales; Voluntades anticipadas