Attitudes toward death, dying, end-of-life palliative care, and interdisciplinary practice in long term care workers.
BACKGROUND
Besides personal and professional experiences, long term care providers' own attitudes toward death may affect the care given to dying residents.


OBJECTIVE
To assess beliefs, values, and attitudes toward death, dying, palliative, and interdisciplinary care in long term care workers and identify any differences between different job categories and places of work.


METHODS
Descriptive cross-sectional survey study.


METHODS
Five public long term care facilities.


METHODS
One thousand one hundred seventy volunteers, clinical managers, and all categories of residential long term care workers.


METHODS
An anonymous paper or electronic self-administered survey questionnaire consisting of 24 items, answered on a 4-point bipolar Likert scale. Between-group differences were compared with the analysis of variance test after adjustment for the multiple post-hoc comparisons.


RESULTS
Healthcare workers had a relatively positive attitude toward more than one-half of the selected aspects of interdisciplinary practice and end-of-life palliative care for long-term residents. However, attitudes were more mixed about 10 other aspects and a higher percentage of respondents indicated negative attitudes toward them. Overall, there are significant differences between upper-level professionals and managers (registered nurses, physicians, rehabilitation staff, and clinical managers) vs the hands-on caregivers (nursing assistants, patient assistants, and volunteers) with regard to some aspects of the care of the dying.


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that healthcare workers' attitudes need to be taken into account in long term care facilities. Patient assistants, volunteers, and nursing assistants seem most likely to above all benefit from training and support programs.
Centre de recherche, Centre de santé et de services sociaux de Bordeaux-Cartierville-Saint-Laurent, centre affilié universitaire, Montréal, Québec, Canada; Centre de recherche, Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal, Montréal, Canada; Département de médecine sociale et préventive, École de santé publique de l'Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada. Electronic address: bernardsimon.leclerc.bcstl@ssss.gouv.qc.ca.
Bernard-Simon
BS
Leclerc
Centre de recherche, Centre de santé et de services sociaux de Bordeaux-Cartierville-Saint-Laurent, centre affilié universitaire, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Sabrina
S
Lessard
Département de politiques sociales et de santé publique, Université de Bretagne-Sud, Lorient, France.
Coralie
C
Bechennec
Département de politiques sociales et de santé publique, Université de Bretagne-Sud, Lorient, France.
Emma
E
Le Gal
Centre d'hébergement Saint-Joseph-de-la-Providence, Centre de santé et de services sociaux de Bordeaux-Cartierville-Saint-Laurent, centre affilié universitaire, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Sylvie
S
Benoit
Centre d'hébergement Saint-Joseph-de-la-Providence, Centre de santé et de services sociaux de Bordeaux-Cartierville-Saint-Laurent, centre affilié universitaire, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Lyne
L
Bellerose
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003643:Death; D064946:Hospice and Palliative Care Nursing; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D010348:Patient Care Team; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D019452:Terminally Ill
Attitude of health personnel; attitude to death; long term care; nursing homes; palliative care; patient care team