A Disclosure About Death Disclosure: Variability in Circulatory Death Determination
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17161/kjm.vol14.15512Abstract
Introduction. Circulatory-respiratory death declaration is a common duty of physicians, but little is known about the amount of education and physician practice patterns in completing this examination.
Methods. We conducted an online survey of physicians evaluating the rate of formal training and specific examination techniques used in the pronouncement of circulatory-respiratory death. Data, including level of practice, training received in formal death declaration, and examination components were collected.
Results. Respondents were attending physicians (52.4%), residents (30.2%), fellows (10.7%), and interns (6.7%). The majority of respondents indicated they had received no formal training in death pronouncement, however, most reported self-perceived competence. When comparing examination components used by our cohort, 95 different examination combinations were used for death pronouncement.
Conclusions. Formal training in death pronouncement is uncommon and clinical practice varies. Implementation of formal training and standardization of the examination are necessary to improve physician competence and reliability in death declarations.
Metrics
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Christopher P. Robinson, D.O., M.S., Suzanne L. Hunt, M.S., Gary S. Gronseth, M.D., Sara Hocker, M.D., Eelco F.M. Wijdiicks, M.D., Ph.D., Alejandro A. Rabinstein, M.D., Sherri A. Braksick, M.D.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
All articles in the Kansas Journal of Medicine are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License (CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0).
