Background“To die with dignity” has reached the significance of a core value in democratic societies. Based on this unconditional value, people require autonomy and care. "Voluntary stopping of eating and drinking" (VSED) represents an alternative to assisted suicide because no one else is involved in the action of death fastening, even though from outside, it might be considered as an extreme form of passive euthanasia. However, there are no data available about the prevalence and frequency of either explicit VSED or the implicit reduction of food and liquid in Switzerland. The responsible and independent ethics committee of the Greater Region of Eastern Switzerland (EKOS 17/083) approved this study.ObjectiveThe objectives of the study were to research the prevalence and frequency of different types (implicit and explicit) of VSED in Switzerland; to explore the experiences, attitudes, handling and recommendations made by palliative care experts; to develop a practical recommendation about VSED, which will be validated by experts in Delphi rounds.MethodsThis protocol describes a convergent mixed-method design to answer the research questions. In the first step, a cross-sectional trilingual survey (in German, French, and Italian) will be carried out to obtain a comprehensive representative picture of VSED in Switzerland. In the second step, qualitative research will be carried out by focus group interviews with palliative care experts. The interviews will be recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using generic coding, and embedded in an explorative descriptive qualitative approach. Based on the results of the first two steps, a practical recommendation will be developed. Experts will validate the practical recommendation in Delphi rounds.ResultsThe enrolment was completed in summer of 2018. Data analysis is currently underway and the first results are expected to be submitted for publication in the end of 2019.ConclusionsThe results of this study will provide important information about the prevalence and frequency of VSED as well as the interpretation of palliative care experts about handling VSED in daily work. Furthermore, the practice recommendation will help professionals and institutions to improve the quality of care in patients and their relatives who made the decision to fasten death by VSED.International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)DERR1-10.2196/10358
Background: ''Voluntary stopping of eating and drinking'' (VSED) is an option to hasten death at the end of life. There are no data available about incidence of either the explicit VSED or implicit (V)SED nor information about experiences and attitudes of health professionals about VSED in Switzerland. Aims: To develop, test, and translate a standardized questionnaire that measures the incidence of VSED, and physicians' and nurses' experiences about explicit VSED and implicit (V)SED. Methods: The development of the questionnaire was based on a systematic search, which were updated in 2016. The questionnaire was tested by palliative care specialists using standard pretest and content validity index (CVI). Subsequently, a forward/backward translation was made. Results: The questionnaire includes 38 items. Feedback of 15 participants in the standard pretest were positive in terms of intelligibility with an average time of 28 minutes. After adjustment, 27 experts validated the items in two rounds. The questionnaire achieves excellent item-CVI values between 0.91 and 1.00 and scale-CVI values of 0.97. The forward/ backward translations were each carried out by two independent translators with subsequent building of a consensus through a consultant. Conclusion: A mulitlingual questionnaire has been developed, which measures the incidence of explicit VSED and implicit (V)SED. This questionnaire is the basis for a Swiss-wide census of all physicians and nurses of outpatient and long-term care.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.