Study on Physicians’ Role Cognition in Respect of Terminal Patients’ Preferences

Abstract

As a means of analyzing physicians’ role cognition in respect of patients’ preferences and feelings, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 46 physicians in charge of cancer treatment in one university hospital and one cancer center. Analysis followed The KJ method, which incorporates qualitative methods of response categorization and context comparison. This study shows that the common tendencies at those two different types of institutions are as follows: 1) When making a decision about treatment plan at the point of the shift from prolonging treatment to palliative therapy, there is a contradiction between the physicians’ role cognition as professionals and their actual behavior; 2) Physicians regard their own professional communication skills as the decisive factor to grasp of patients’ preferences.