Attitudes of Indian Palliative-care Nurses and Physicians to Pain Control and Palliative Sedation
Author Information
Author(s): Gielen Joris, Gupta Harmala, Rajvanshi Ambika, Bhatnagar Sushma, Mishra Seema, Chaturvedi Arvind K, den Branden Stef, Van Broeckaert Bert
Primary Institution: Interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of Religion and World View (Catholic University Leuven)
Hypothesis
What are the attitudes of Indian palliative-care nurses and physicians toward pain control and palliative sedation?
Conclusion
Indian palliative-care nurses and physicians do not consider the administration of painkillers in large doses an ethical problem, but have concerns about deep continuous palliative sedation.
Supporting Evidence
- Participants believe painkillers do not hasten death if properly titrated.
- Many health professionals in India still think painkillers hasten death.
- Light palliative sedation is considered acceptable, but deep continuous sedation raises concerns.
Takeaway
Doctors and nurses in India believe that pain can be managed well with medication, and they think using strong painkillers doesn't speed up death, but they worry about using heavy sedation.
Methodology
Interviews with 14 physicians and 13 nurses using a semi-structured questionnaire and grounded-theory methodology.
Potential Biases
Potential bias due to self-reported attitudes and the small sample size.
Limitations
The study may not represent all palliative-care professionals in India as it was limited to New Delhi.
Participant Demographics
17 female and 10 male participants, average age 42.7 years, from various regions of India.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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