Levels of care in the intensive care unit: a research program

These deductions emphasize a further challenge to valid end-of-life discussions, namely, the provision of an accurate prognosis. Therefore, while we continue to unfold and evaluate objective predictions of results in the ICU, the prognosis understood at ICU physicians remains strongly influential (although not necessarily as accurate as we would like) in the framing of end-of-life discussions.

Clinicians' Discomfort With Life-Support Treatments

Finally, recognizing that uncertainty exists in understanding the specific wishes of patients and their families, and in providing a reliable estimate of ultimate prognosis, and that differences exist between clinicians in evaluating these parameters, we focused forward clinicians' comfort with the provision or withdrawal of life-support treatments.

Objective 6: To Determine the Incidence and Predictors of Healthcare Providers' Discomfort With Advanced Life Support Plans for Patients Receiving Mechanical Ventilation