Table 2.
Background characteristics of physicians (n = 1354)a
| General practitioners | Elderly care physicians | Medical specialists | Psychiatrists | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N = 607 | N = 209 | N = 331 | N = 207 | |
| No. (%) | No. (%) | No. (%) | No. (%) | |
| Demographics | ||||
| Gender | ||||
| Male | 260 (43.3) | 80 (38.5) | 198 (60.0) | 122 (59.5) |
| Female | 341 (56.7) | 128 (61.5) | 132 (40.0) | 83 (40.5) |
| Age in years | ||||
| < 40 | 167 (27.5) | 28 (13.4) | 88 (26.6) | 20 (9.6) |
| 40–54 | 280 (46.1) | 105 (50.2) | 176 (53.2) | 103 (49.8) |
| ≥ 55 | 160 (26.4) | 76 (36.4) | 67 (20.2) | 84 (40.6) |
| Religious belief | ||||
| No | 398 (66.6) | 130 (62.5) | 241 (73.7) | 117 (57.9) |
| Yes | 200 (33.4) | 78 (37.5) | 86 (26.3) | 85 (42.1) |
| Professional characteristics | ||||
| Years of experience | ||||
| < 10 | 142 (23.4) | 22 (10.5) | 65 (19.6) | 46 (22.2) |
| ≥ 10 | 465 (76.6) | 187 (89.5) | 266 (80.4) | 161 (77.8) |
| Palliative care education | ||||
| No | 261 (43.6) | 76 (36.9) | 257 (77.9) | 195 (96.1) |
| Yes | 338 (56.4) | 130 (63.1) | 73 (22.1) | 8 (3.9) |
| Consultant palliative care/member palliative care team | ||||
| No | 597 (98.5) | 181 (87.9) | 309 (93.9) | 202 (99.5) |
| Yes | 9 (1.5) | 25 (12.1) | 20 (6.1) | 1 (0.5) |
| SCEN physician | ||||
| No | 580 (95.7) | 194 (94.2) | 325 (99.1) | 199 (98.0) |
| Yes | 26 (4.3) | 12 (5.8) | 3 (0.9) | 4 (2.0) |
| Ever received an explicit EAS request | ||||
| No | 42 (6.9) | 49 (23.4) | 182 (55.2) | 111 (58.1) |
| Yes, but never performed EAS | 92 (15.2) | 60 (28.7) | 73 (22.1) | 73 (38.2) |
| Yes, and ever performed EAS | 472 (77.9) | 100 (47.8) | 75 (22.7) | 7 (3.7) |
| Received an EAS request from a psychiatric patient in the past year | ||||
| No | 564 (95.4) | 196 (95.6) | 325 (99.4) | 164 (83.7) |
| Yes | 27 (4.6) | 9 (4.4) | 2 (0.6) | 32 (16.3) |
| Ever performed EAS on request from a psychiatric patientb | ||||
| Nee | 572 (95.2) | 199 (95.2) | 327 (99.1) | 184 (96.3) |
| Ja | 29 (4.8) | 10 (4.8) | 3 (0.9) | 7 (3.7) |
a Number of missing varied between 0 (0%) and 35 (2.6%)
b General practitioners, medical specialists and elderly care physicians were asked whether they found it conceivable that they would perform EAS in patients with psychiatric disorders. This specification, ‘in patients with psychiatric disorders’, was omitted for psychiatrists, as they presumably do not receive EAS requests from patients without psychiatric disorders