Affiliation:
1. Department of Visceral Surgery, Lausanne University Hospital CHUV, Lausanne, Switzerland
Abstract
Abstract
Background
The death of a patient is experienced at some time by most surgeons. The aim of this review was to use existing literature to establish how surgeons have dealt with the death of patients.
Methods
A systematic review of the medical literature was performed. MEDLINE/PubMed, Ovid, Web of Science, Embase, and Google Scholar were searched for qualitative and quantitative studies on surgeon reactions when facing death or a dying patient. This systematic review was performed following the recommendations of the Cochrane collaboration and reported following the PRISMA guidelines. Individual and interview-based opinions were summarized and synthesized.
Results
An initial search found 652 articles. After exclusion of articles that did not satisfy the inclusion criteria, 20 articles remained and seven were included. Two of these articles were personal opinion of the author and five were interviews or surveys. The main findings were that facing death routinely induces a strong psychological burden and that surgeons are more at risk than the general population to develop psychological morbidity.
Conclusion
Although it is a frequent and emotional subject in the surgical world, the impact of patient death on surgeons is not abundantly studied in the literature. Dealing with patient death or taking care of a dying patient might have long-lasting psychological impact on surgeons.
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Cited by
23 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献