임종환자에 대한 태도조사

A Study on the Attitudes Toward Dying Patients

As the modern medicine advances with time, the chronic debilitating disease has become the leading cause of death, and the num ber of the chronically ill and dying patients has increased. Therefore the management of dying patients has become an important problem in the medical practices and it is difficult for doctors to tell the patient that he or she is dying. It has been a major problem for the doctors to decide w hether to tell the dying patients the truth or not. The author conducted a research to investigate the attitudes of 42 medical staffs, 72 medical residents, 95 medical students and 43 hospices toward the dying patients. 1) The 81.8% of the respondents agreed to inform the dying patient about his death. The most common reason for informing the patient was that the patient should psychologically ready for death, and patient must be given the opportunity to take care of their own affairs. 2) The 39.1 깠 of the respondents considered the emotional stability as a prerequisite for disclosure, and then, items such as aggrement of families, exepectation of life and age of the patient were also considered. 3) The 61.7% of the respondents thought the most proper tim e to tell the patient was when he vaguely recognized his prognosis. 4) The 61.0% of respondents chose the physician as the most appropriate person to tell the patients, and then, family of patients followed. 5) The 61.8 짯 of the respondents chose “to take several days in a step by step fashion” to tell turth. 6) As to what a dying patient needed most, chosen items were ordered ; religeous help(30.8 %), care of family(30.0^) and relief of pain(13.6%). 7) The 56.6% of the respondents agreed that psychiatric treatm ent for a dying patient was helpful. 8) All respondents thought a dying patient suffered from anxiety of unknown world after death. 9) To the question, “If you are dying, do you want to know the truth” , the 90.3% of the respondents replied that they want to know the truth. 10) In the questionaire of “The meaning of the death”, the 72.9% of the respondents replied that the death was a limited and unavoidable phenomena. 11) In the questionaire of “W ere you satisfied with the trearm ent of a dying patient”, the 49.6% of the respondents replied that they were poorly satisfied with a emotional and psychological support to a dying patient. 12) The 23.2% of the respondents wanted to send the patient back to home to die.