Assessing attitudinal barriers toward end-of-life care

Due to the rapid influx of Palliative care and Hospice services over the last decade, there has been an increase in the number of medical professionals interacting with terminal patients. One of the challenges with this growth becomes how to integrate these services into already busy practices along with providing physicians the education and tools they need to provide quality care. While there is no shortage of articles focusing on the educational needs of physicians related to end of life care, less is known about the level of anxiety physicians feel about interacting with dying patients and their families.