Özet:

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to determine the treatments that physicians prefer to receive, if they had a terminal stage illness and to observe whether these preferences are influenced by parameters such as age, work years in the profession or specialty. Materials and Methods: A survey consisting of 22 questions was delivered to physicians. The physicians were asked if they were prefer to die in hospital, home, intensive care unit or palliative care center if they were terminally ill; and they would want invasive procedures performed. They were also asked whether they informed their relatives about those preferences. Results: A total of 443 physicians participated in the study, 77.42% of them stated that they would prefer to die at home if they had a terminal illness. Regarding invasive procedures; 72.46% of the physicians did not want chest compressions, 75.62 % did not want to be connected to the ventilator, 57.56% did not want a central catheter, 49.88% did not want hemodialysis, and 61.17% did not want a feeding tube placement. Only 17.15% of physicians stated that they had talked with their relatives about end of life decisions. Conclusion: In this study we found that most physicians want to die at home and do not wish to be treated with invasive interventions in case they had a life limiting illness. However, we also observed that the majority of the physicians do not share these opinions with their close ones.

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