Abstract
Introduction: No previous data has been collected regarding the relationships between emergency medical practitioners and the family of deceased patients; therefore, the surveys of emergency physicians were conducted at their workplaces to examine their awareness and the actual circumstances they faced when speaking to the family of deceased patients.
Research Subjects: As of February 2011, 3,049 emergency physicians of the Japanese Association for Acute Medicine were surveyed.
Methods: After receiving approval from a research ethics committee at an affiliated institution and devising ethical considerations regarding the implementation of the research, unsigned, mail-in surveys were anonymously collected, their answers were automatically recorded, and statistical analyses were performed.
Results: Completed questionnaires were obtained from 860 emergency physicians, and the valid response rate was 28.5%. Physicians who were actively engaged in providing support to bereaved family members gave more consideration to items that are usually explained to bereaved family members in emergency situations. In addition, these physicians paid more attention to such items when bereaved family members were allowed to be with the deceased patient. The survey revealed that 38.4% emergency physicians preferred to undergo specialized training for providing support to bereaved family members. In the group that preferred specialized training, physicians struggled with providing support to bereaved family members in certain cases where the patient had committed suicide or had multiple or serious injuries. Furthermore, 87.1% physicians responded that they naturally learnt how to provide support to bereaved family members by observing senior physicians.
Conclusion: Even specialist physicians hope to receive effective training and to learn from experience regarding the difficulties and struggles while providing support to bereaved family members in emergency settings. Therefore, it is important to devise practical, simple, and effective learning methods and training content. Moreover, our results suggested that the quality of support could be improved by increasing the awareness regarding active participation in providing support to bereaved family members. Future studies need to investigate how emergency physicians can continue to foster their attitude to actively engage in providing support to bereaved family members in emergency settings.
