Ethical decisions on the end of life during internal medicine on-call shifts

To describe the frequency of decisions of withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatment and palliative sedation in patients previously unknown to physicians during on-call.

Observational study (survey) of Spanish internists.

Two hundred seventy-three surveys. In patients they did not know, 95.2% decided during an on-call whether they should enter the Intensive Care Unit and 89% whether to initiate sedation. Measures most identified as "aggressive": admission to the Intensive Care Unit, use of invasive techniques, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and invasive treatments. 48.4% make the decision to start sedation as a team and 4 out of 10 do not consult the patient. Decisions are planned most commonly with cancer patients (73%), with heart failure (60.4%) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (58%).

During the on-call, almost all internists make decisions about admission to the Intensive Care Unit or about sedation in unknown patients. It is planned more the decisions with cancer patients. The decision to sedate is usually made as a team and the patient is often not consulted.