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Australian pharmacists' perspectives on physician-assisted suicide (PAS): thematic analysis of semistructured interviews.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVES:This study aimed to investigate Australian pharmacists' views about their role in physician-assisted suicide (PAS), their ethical and legal concerns and overall thoughts about PAS in pharmacy. DESIGN:Semistructured interviews of pharmacists incorporating a previously validated vignette and thematic analysis. SETTING:Australia (face to face or phone call). PARTICIPANTS:40 Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency registered pharmacists, majority women (65%) with varied experiences in community, hospital, industry, academia, government and other fields. RESULTS:Emergent themes from the interviews were: legal and logistical framework, ethical framework, training and guidance and healthcare budget. More than half the participants supported the role of pharmacists in the supply of medicines for PAS, while less than half were either against or unsure of the legislation of PAS in Australia. Shared concerns included transparency of prescribing practices and identification of authorised physicians involved in PAS, which were consistent with existing literature. Religious faith, emotion and professional autonomy were key indicators for the implementation of conscientious objection to the supply of medicines in PAS. Re-evaluation of current guidelines, pharmacist training and government reimbursement was also of significance from participants' perspectives. CONCLUSION:This study revealed current concerns of practising pharmacists in Australia, including previously undocumented perspectives on the pharmacoeconomic impact of and barriers relating to PAS. The need for training of all healthcare professionals involved, the provision of clear guidelines, including regulation around storage, administration and disposal of medicines dispensed for PAS and the updating of current therapeutic guidelines around end-of-life care were all issues delineated by this study. These findings highlighted the need for current and future policies to account for all stakeholders involved in PAS, not solely prescribers.

SUBMITTER: Isaac S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6830588 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Australian pharmacists' perspectives on physician-assisted suicide (PAS): thematic analysis of semistructured interviews.

Isaac Sami S McLachlan Andrew A Chaar Betty B

BMJ open 20191030 10

<h4>Objectives</h4>This study aimed to investigate Australian pharmacists' views about their role in physician-assisted suicide (PAS), their ethical and legal concerns and overall thoughts about PAS in pharmacy.<h4>Design</h4>Semistructured interviews of pharmacists incorporating a previously validated vignette and thematic analysis.<h4>Setting</h4>Australia (face to face or phone call).<h4>Participants</h4>40 Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency registered pharmacists, majority wome ...[more]

PMID: 31666261

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Project description:BackgroundLifelong learning is embedded in the culture of medicine, but there are limited tools currently available for many clinicians, including hospitalists, to help improve their own practice. Although there are requirements for continuing medical education, resources for learning new clinical guidelines, and developing fields aimed at facilitating peer-to-peer feedback, there is a gap in the availability of tools that enable clinicians to learn based on their own patients and clinical decisions.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to explore the technologies or modifications to existing systems that could be used to benefit hospitalist physicians in pursuing self-assessment and improvement by understanding physicians' current practices and their reactions to proposed possibilities.MethodsSemistructured interviews were conducted in two separate stages with analysis performed after each stage. In the first stage, interviews (N=12) were conducted to understand the ways in which hospitalist physicians are currently gathering feedback and assessing their practice. A thematic analysis of these interviews informed the prototype used to elicit responses in the second stage.ResultsClinicians actively look for feedback that they can apply to their practice, with the majority of the feedback obtained through self-assessment. The following three themes surrounding this aspect were identified in the first round of semistructured interviews: collaboration, self-reliance, and uncertainty, each with three related subthemes. Using a wireframe, the second round of interviews led to identifying the features that are currently challenging to use or could be made available with technology.ConclusionsBased on each theme and subtheme, we provide targeted recommendations for use by relevant stakeholders such as institutions, clinicians, and technologists. Most hospitalist self-assessments occur on a rolling basis, specifically using data in electronic medical records as their primary source. Specific objective data points or subjective patient relationships lead clinicians to review their patient cases and to assess their own performance. However, current systems are not built for these analyses or for clinicians to perform self-assessment, making this a burdensome and incomplete process. Building a platform that focuses on providing and curating the information used for self-assessment could help physicians make more accurately informed changes to their own clinical practice and decision-making.

Project description:ObjectivesThis study aimed to examine how patients perceive shared decision-making regarding CT scan referral and use of the five Choosing Wisely questions with their general practitioner (GP).DesignThis is a qualitative exploratory study using semistructured interviews.SettingThis study was conducted in a large metropolitan public healthcare organisation in urban Australia.ParticipantsFollowing purposive sampling, 20 patients and 2 carers participated. Patient participants aged 18 years or older were eligible if they were attending the healthcare organisation for a CT scan and referred by their GP. Carers/family were eligible to participate when they were in the role of an unpaid carer and were aged 18 years or older. Participants were required to speak English sufficiently to provide informed consent. Participants with cognitive impairment were excluded.FindingsEighteen interviews were conducted with the patient only. Two interviews were conducted with the patient and the patient's carer. Fourteen participants were female. Five themes resulted from the thematic analysis: (1) needing to know, (2) questioning doctors is not necessary, (3) discussing scans is not required, (4) uncertainty about questioning and (5) valuing the Choosing Wisely questions. Participants reported that they presented to their GP with a health problem that they needed to understand and address. Participants accepted their GPs decision to prescribe a CT scan to identify the nature of their problem. They reported ambivalence about engaging in shared decision-making with their doctor, although many participants reported valuing the Choosing Wisely questions.ConclusionsShared decision-making is an important principle underpinning Choosing Wisely. Practice implementation requires understanding patients' motivations to engage in shared decision-making with a focus on attitudes, beliefs, knowledge and emotions. Systems-level support and education for healthcare practitioners in effective communication is important. However, this needs to emphasise communication with patients who have varying degrees of motivation to engage in shared decision-making and Choosing Wisely.

Project description:BackgroundThe transformative storytelling technique is an innovative top-down approach to narrative therapy that aims to provide building blocks for creating flourishing narratives for target groups or populations. This approach acts as a facilitator for implementing the human-centered design in developing digital self-help tools for larger samples or target groups.ObjectiveThis study applied the transformative storytelling technique, as a new approach in mental health, to develop empowering audio narratives for informal caregivers.MethodsA narrative inquiry was conducted with 17 informal caregivers (16 women and 1 man) who completed a semistructured interview, "Caregiver Life Story," acquiring information about the beginning of the role, rising action, and critical point of the role. The participants' ages ranged from 41 to 84 years, with all participants providing care for at least a 6-month period. This inquiry was guided by the transformative storytelling technique, and aimed to collect data relevant to creating fictional stories based on real-life themes.ResultsTwenty-five overall themes were distinguished across three a priori-set categories, providing narrative building blocks for the informal caregiver life stories. The final empowering caregiver life story was created as an example for this study, demonstrating the application of the transformative storytelling technique in an informal care context.ConclusionsThe creation of empowering stories for populations or target groups in mental health care requires a unified and guided approach that will follow clear guidelines and storytelling principles. The transformative storytelling technique is a first of its kind in the mental health context, representing an initial step in enabling and supporting the creation of meaningful stories and the development of relatable, but productive, narratives. Such narratives have the potential to serve across media and digital platforms for supporting and improving well-being, and potentially triggering self-change in the target group or population.

Project description:BackgroundThe hospitalist workday is cognitively demanding and dominated by activities away from patients' bedsides. Although mobile technologies are offered as solutions, clinicians report lower expectations of mobile technology after actual use.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study is to better understand opportunities for integrating mobile technology and apps into hospitalists' workflows. We aim to identify difficult tasks and contextual factors that introduce inefficiencies and characterize hospitalists' perspectives on mobile technology and apps.MethodsWe conducted a workflow analysis based on semistructured interviews. At a Midwestern US medical center, we recruited physicians and nurse practitioners from hospitalist and inpatient teaching teams and internal medicine residents. Interviews focused on tasks perceived as frequent, redundant, and difficult. Additionally, participants were asked to describe opportunities for mobile technology interventions. We analyzed contributing factors, impacted workflows, and mobile app ideas.ResultsOver 3 months, we interviewed 12 hospitalists. Participants collectively identified chart reviews, orders, and documentation as the most frequent, redundant, and difficult tasks. Based on those tasks, the intake, discharge, and rounding workflows were characterized as difficult and inefficient. The difficulty was associated with a lack of access to electronic health records at the bedside. Contributing factors for inefficiencies were poor usability and inconsistent availability of health information technology combined with organizational policies. Participants thought mobile apps designed to improve team communications would be most beneficial. Based on our analysis, mobile apps focused on data entry and presentation supporting specific tasks should also be prioritized.ConclusionsBased on our results, there are prioritized opportunities for mobile technology to decrease difficulty and increase the efficiency of hospitalists' workflows. Mobile technology and task-specific mobile apps with enhanced usability could decrease overreliance on hospitalists' memory and fragmentation of clinical tasks across locations. This study informs the design and implementation processes of future health information technologies to improve continuity in hospital-based medicine.

Project description:ImportanceThe Dutch Regional Euthanasia Review Committees (RTEs) reviewed and reported an increasing number of cases of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (EAS) requested by older people with multiple geriatric syndromes (MGS). Knowledge of the characteristics of cases of EAS for MGS is important to facilitate societal debate and to monitor EAS practice.ObjectiveTo examine the accumulation of patient characteristics, geriatric syndromes, and other circumstances as reported in the case summaries of the RTEs that led to unbearable suffering associated with a request for EAS and to analyze the RTEs' assessments of these cases of EAS.Design, setting, and participantsA qualitative content analysis was conducted of all case summaries filed from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2019, under the category MGS and published in a national open access database. These case summaries were selected by the RTEs from the total of 1605 reported cases of EAS in the category MGS.ResultsThe RTEs published 53 cases (41 [77%] female) under the category MGS. A total of 28 patients (53%) had always perceived themselves as independent, active, and socially involved. None of the patients suffered from life-threatening conditions. Multiple geriatric syndromes, such as visual impairment (34 cases [64%]), hearing loss (28 cases [53%]), pain (25 cases [47%]), and chronic tiredness (22 cases [42%]), were common. The request for EAS was often preceded by a sequence of events, especially recurrent falls (33 cases [62%]). Although physical suffering could be determined in all cases, the case descriptions found that suffering occurred on multiple dimensions, such as the loss of mobility (44 [83%]), fears (21 [40%]), dependence (23 [43%]), and social isolation (19 [36%]).Conclusions and relevanceThis qualitative study suggests that an accumulation of geriatric syndromes leading to a request for EAS is often intertwined with the social and existential dimension of suffering. This leads to a complex interplay of physical, psychological, and existential suffering that changes over time.

Dataset Information

Australian pharmacists' perspectives on physician-assisted suicide (PAS): thematic analysis of semistructured interviews.

Publications

Australian pharmacists' perspectives on physician-assisted suicide (PAS): thematic analysis of semistructured interviews.

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