The limitation of life support in intensive care: the medical perception

Abstract

The present study sought to analyze the process of medical decision-making when limiting the life support of critical patients. A descriptive-exploratory, qualitative study was performed with 14 doctors from a public hospital in the southwest of the state of Bahia, Brazil, using semi-structured interviews. The Discourse of the Collective Subject technique was used to identify six central ideas: limitation means not employing useless treatment on terminal patients; the patient has the right to a dignified death and palliative care; it is important
to be aware of the family and the professional role in including them when limiting life support; deciding on limitation is a rational and medical question; the family is only informed about the decision; I am not God, I have
uncertainties and fear when diagnosing terminality; medicine has many biases, how will I create a protocol for the limitation of care? There was also one anchoring factor: we have no difficulty in limiting support when faced
with terminality in cancer cases. It was concluded that there is a need to improve medical training when dealing with death and its challenges.