Dataset Information

Seeking and Accepting: U.S. Clergy Theological and Moral Perspectives Informing Decision Making at the End of Life.

ABSTRACT:

Background

People with serious illness frequently rely on religion/spirituality to cope with their diagnosis, with potentially positive and negative consequences. Clergy are uniquely positioned to help patients consider medical decisions at or near the end of life within a religious/spiritual framework.

Objective

We aimed to examine clergy knowledge of end-of-life (EOL) care and beliefs about the role of faith in EOL decision making for patients with serious illness.

Design

Key informant interviews, focus groups, and survey.

Setting/subjects

A purposive sample of 35 active clergy in five U.S. states as part of the National Clergy End-of-Life Project.

Measurement

We assessed participant knowledge of and desire for further education about EOL care. We transcribed interviews and focus groups for the purpose of qualitative analysis.

Results

Clergy had poor knowledge of EOL care; 75% desired more EOL training. Qualitative analysis revealed a theological framework for decision making in serious illness that balances seeking life and accepting death. Clergy viewed comfort-focused treatments as consistent with their faith traditions' views of a good death. They employed a moral framework to determine the appropriateness of EOL decisions, which weighs the impact of multiple factors and upholds the importance of God-given free will. They viewed EOL care choices to be the primary prerogative of patients and families. Clergy described ambivalence about and a passive approach to counseling congregants about decision making despite having defined beliefs regarding EOL care.

Conclusions

Poor knowledge of EOL care may lead clergy to passively enable congregants with serious illness to pursue potentially nonbeneficial treatments that are associated with increased suffering.

SUBMITTER: Sanders JJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5647498 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Seeking and Accepting: U.S. Clergy Theological and Moral Perspectives Informing Decision Making at the End of Life.

Sanders Justin J JJ Chow Vinca V Enzinger Andrea C AC Lam Tai-Chung TC Smith Patrick T PT Quiñones Rebecca R Baccari Andrew A Philbrick Sarah S White-Hammond Gloria G Peteet John J Balboni Tracy A TA Balboni Michael J MJ

Journal of palliative medicine 20170407 10

<h4>Background</h4>People with serious illness frequently rely on religion/spirituality to cope with their diagnosis, with potentially positive and negative consequences. Clergy are uniquely positioned to help patients consider medical decisions at or near the end of life within a religious/spiritual framework.<h4>Objective</h4>We aimed to examine clergy knowledge of end-of-life (EOL) care and beliefs about the role of faith in EOL decision making for patients with serious illness.<h4>Design</h4 ...[more]

PMID: 28387570

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Dataset Information

Seeking and Accepting: U.S. Clergy Theological and Moral Perspectives Informing Decision Making at the End of Life.

Background

Objective

Design

Setting/subjects

Measurement

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Seeking and Accepting: U.S. Clergy Theological and Moral Perspectives Informing Decision Making at the End of Life.

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