DOCTORS, NURSES WRESTLE CONFLICTS ON DYING PATIENTS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 14, 1993                   TAG: 9301140141
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium
DOCTORS, NURSES WRESTLE CONFLICTS ON DYING PATIENTS
Most doctors and nurses think too much is done to keep dying patients alive and too little to ease their pain, according to a survey. Just 12 percent regarded the removal of a feeding tube as killing.
"Almost half the respondents reported having acted against their conscience in providing care," the researchers wrote. "Most concern centered on overtreatment rather than undertreatment."
In an article published in today's edition of the American Journal of Public Health, the researchers said that doctors and nurses have a lot of trouble dealing with death. According to the survey, those standing at the deathbeds of others have beliefs that sometimes are confused and contradictory.
They don't want to let go of their dying patients, but they don't want to hurt them. While only 12 percent think it's killing to pull out someone's feeding tube, 42 percent say that even when life-support machines are disconnected, "food and water should always be continued."
More than two-thirds think respirators are used for the dying more than they ought to be, 64 percent feel that way about cardiopulmonary resuscitation, 54 percent about tube-feeding and 51 percent about dialysis.
Still, once a treatment has been started, the doctors and nurses are squeamish about stopping it. Most of them aren't sure about what the law and their professional ethics say about it.
The survey was based on questionnaires filled out by 687 physicians and 759 nurses at five hospitals in Massachusetts; Georgia; Washington, D.C.; and California. The institutions were not identified beyond saying they included a city hospital, a Catholic hospital and three teaching hospitals in cities.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB