Knowledge of End-Of-Life Law: A Cross-Sectional Survey of General Practitioners Working in Aged Care

Abstract

Objective: To describe the knowledge of end-of-life law and experiences in practice at the end-of-life amongst Australian General Practitioners (GPs).

Methods: A cross-sectional online survey of GPs practising in aged care settings in QLD, NSW and VIC.

Results: From 521 potential GPs, 160 (response rate 30.7%) were included in the final sample. Most participants (62%) reported experience with six key end-of-life areas at least “a few times”, including 74% administering medication for pain and symptom relief, and 67% facilitating advance care planning “several” or “many times” and perceiving they had “some” knowledge of end-of-life law (53%, n=84). However, low to moderate actual levels of end-of-life legal knowledge were identified (mean correct response of 5.24 out of 9).

Conclusion: Australian GPs working in aged care may have low to moderate knowledge about end-of-life law despite frequently making end-of-life decisions in clinical practice.

Note:
Funding Information: This study was undertaken as part of the ELDAC project which is funded by the Australian Government, Department of Health.

Declaration of Interests: The authors are affiliated with or employed by ELDAC, which funded the project. The authors have no other potential financial or personal interests that may constitute a source of bias.

Ethics Approval Statement: Participation was voluntary and all responses were anonymous. Participants were informed that consent was implied by completing the survey. Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the Human Research Ethics Committee (reference number: 2000000185).

Keywords: aged, general practitioners, surveys and questionnaires, advance care planning, health law

JEL Classification: I00, I10, I19, K00, K10, K19, K32, K39