Table 3.
Characteristics of Clinicians Completing the Surveys
| Attending | Fellow | Psychosocial Staff |
Bedside | Primary | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of clinicians who cared for a decedent and received at least one survey | 38a | 32 a | 42 | 83 b | 76 b |
| Median number of decedents cared for (range) | 2 (1–10) | 2 (1–9) | 2 (1–20) | 1 (1–3) | 1 (1–3) |
| Number of clinicians who completed at least one survey (% of received survey) | 24 (63%) | 22 (69%) | 26 (62%) | 48 (58%) | 39 (51%) |
| Median number of surveys completed (range) | 2 (1–8) | 2 (1–6) | 2 (1–18) | 1 (1–3) | 1 (1–3) |
| % of clinicians who completed at least one survey who | |||||
| % completed only one survey | 33% | 45% | 38% | 83% | 84% |
| % completed 2–4 surveys | 63% | 41% | 42% | 17% | 16% |
| % completed 5 or more surveys | 4% | 14% | 20% | - | - |
| Number of clinicians who completed survey with demographic information (%) | 21 (88%) | 18 (82%) | 22 (85%) | 42 (88%) | 32 (82%) |
| % Female | 33% | 50% | 86% | 95% | 97% |
| % non-Caucasian | 5% | 22% | 27% | 10% | 9% |
| Years in medicine | |||||
| % 0–2 | 0% | 0% | 23% | 24% | 6% |
| % 3–10 | 38% | 89% | 36% | 48% | 68% |
| % 10+ | 62% | 11% | 41% | 29% | 26% |
| Years in critical care | |||||
| % 0–2 | 5% | 62% | 36% | 33% | 22% |
| % 3–10 | 57% | 39% | 41% | 48% | 59% |
| % 10+ | 38% | 0% | 23% | 19% | 19% |
| % Any previous training in end-of-life care | 95% | 100% | 95% | 76% | 81% |
a
Note that three clinicians served as a critical care fellow and then an attending physician during the accrual period. So the total number of physicians involved in caring for the decedents was 67 (=38+32-3).
b
Nurses could serve as either the bedside or the primary nurse for any given decedent. There were 32 nurses who cared for one decedent as a bedside nurse and another as a primary nurse. So the total number of nurses involved in caring for the decedents was 127 (=83+76-32).