The death of a patient can mark the end of a long professional relationship, but there’s been surprisingly little research into what doctors do on such occasions, or what is expected of them.
A systematic review by a group of Victorian doctors has found only a handful of studies into the responses to a patient death by medical professionals and healthcare institutions, and with much of the research in the area focusing on commentary and anecdotal reports rather than quantifying the actions taken.
Letters and phone calls to family members were the most commonly cited responses in studies of doctors reactions to the death of a patient. However, practices varied widely by speciality, age and gender of the practitioner, according to the review by Dr Laurence Weinberg and colleagues at the Austin Health Department of Anaesthesia.
Unsurprisingly, doctors in specialities that deal more with end-of-life care such as palliative medicine, oncology and intensive care were the most studied when it came to bereavement practices.
While some doctors thought that a letter of condolence to family was appropriate, others believed that a phone call was a more immediate and personal way of providing a response to the death of a patient. Phone responses could be either active or passive, and depended on the level of services provided by the institution, with some hospitals having dedicated bereavement services and co-ordinators for family members.
Female doctors and doctors with more experience in practice were more likely to provide active responses to a patient’s deaths, but only a minority said they attended memorial services or a funeral.
Doctors who developed a special or longstanding bond with patients were more likely to be involved in bereavement activities – particular in specialties such as paediatrics and primary care.