Ethics and palliative care: what do physicians know about it?

Abstract

According to the new Code of Medical Ethics (2010) in Brazil it was established that physicians should employ palliative care when the cure is not possible. The aim of the study was to know the current state of this discussion. To this end, we have conducted a transversal quantitative epidemiological study with physicians from the clinical staff of a complex of Hospitals Schools regarding ethics in Palliative Care. When questioning physicians about their goals in the care of a patient, according to medical ethics, most of them gave us incomplete responses. Only 28.9% answered straight away that they would use palliative care. Most physicians (59.2%) only consider palliative care for pain relief and quality of life, and 38.2% regard age as an important factor for this indication. Therefore, the knowledge of practicing physicians on this topic is precarious and medical education measures are necessary.