Table 1 (abstract P378). Physician-related individual variability in end-of-life decisions

Theme

Codes

Quotes

Individual variability

Views on acceptable outcomes

“Will this patient really leave the hospital alive, and in that case, in what condition will the patient be?” (R 1)

Individual variability

Values

“I am trying to actively think about not treating marginalized people in any other way than others. But I think perhaps it may be that people like heavy drug abusers may receive more limitations than others, based on medical factors, like they probably have low quality of life, small physiological reserves and may have low compliance to any aftercare”. (R16)

Individual variability

Fear of criticism

“The fear consists of that I may misjudge the patient’s possibilities for recovery and therefore withdraw LST too early. That it could evoke criticism from colleagues that were not directly involved and might have made another decision. Also there is this fear of liability, of being subject to a process of some kind” (R4).