Decision-making in end of life care. Are we really playing together in the same team?

Limitation of life-sustaining treatment is increasingly common in critical care units, and controlled donation after circulatory death is starting to be included as an option within patient care plans. Lack of knowledge and misunderstandings can place a barrier between healthcare professionals.

To determine the perceptions, knowledge and attitudes of physicians and nurses working in intensive care units regarding Limitation of life-sustaining treatment and controlled donation after circulatory death.

Cross-sectional study carried out in 13 Spanish hospitals by means of an ad hoc questionnaire.

Contingency tables, Pearson's chi-squared test, Student's t-test and the Mann-Whitney u-test were used to carry out descriptive, bivariate and multivariate statistical analyses of responses.

Although Limitation of life-sustaining treatment is a widespread practice, the survey revealed that nurses feel excluded from the development of protocols and the decision-making process, whilst the perception of physicians is that they have greater knowledge of the topic, and decisions are reached in consensus.

Multi-disciplinary training programmes can help critical healthcare providers to work together with greater coordination, thus benefitting patients and their next of kin by providing excellent end-of-life care.