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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Decisions to treat or not to treat pneumonia in demented psychogeriatric nursing home patients
— development of a guideline | | Author(s) | Jenny T van der Steen, Martien T Muller, Marcel E Ooms |
| Journal title | Journal of Medical Ethics, vol 26, no 2, April 2000 |
| Pages | pp 114-120 |
| Keywords | Pneumonia ; Medical care ; Dementia ; Patients [nursing homes] ; Standards of provision ; Literature reviews. |
| Annotation | Non-treatment decisions concerning demented patients involves consideration of health, ethical and legal issues. This paper describes a method for developing a guideline clarifying steps to be taken in the decision-making process on whether to forgo curative treatment of pneumonia in psychogeriatric nursing home patients. The method of development consisted of seven steps, the first of which was a literature study to identify ethical, juridical and medical factors concerning a patient's health and prognosis. Next, a questionnaire to 26 nursing home physicians determined the relative importance of these factors in clinical practice, which were then confirmed by most of another 9 experienced physicians. To prevent the final guideline being too directive, a concept guideline including ethical and legal aspects was designed in the form of a "checklist of considerations". The checklist was then reviewed and commented on by experts in the fields of nursing home medicine, ethics and law. The accordingly adapted checklist (embracing consideration of medical aspects, a patient's autonomy and best interest) was tested in a pilot study, and finally endorsed by experts. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-000504203 A |
| Classmark | CNP: LK: EA: LHB:LF: 583: 64A |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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