Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32869653›Full record

ArticleThe American journal of hospice & palliative care2021

POLST Signature Requirements: Responding With Compassion While Ensuring Informed Consent.

Robert Macauley, Susan Tolle

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in The American journal of hospice & palliative care, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact, top 86% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed, 0 citations in OpenAlex.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Robert MacauleyDepartment of Pediatrics, 6684OHSU, Portland, OR, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3793-9188
Susan TolleDeparment of General Internal Medicine, Center for Ethics in Health Care, 6684OHSU, Portland, OR, USA.
Ethics and Public Policy Center · USUniversity of Portland · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The majority of states require the signature of a surrogate decision maker on a POLST form for a patient who lacks decisional capacity. While commendable in its intention to ensure informed consent, in some cases this may lead the surrogate to feel that they are signing their loved one's "death warrant," adding to their emotional and spiritual distress. In this paper we argue that such a signature should be recommended rather than required, as it is neither a sufficient nor necessary condition of informed consent. Additional steps-such as requiring the attestation and documentation of the signing health care professional that verbal consent was fully informed and voluntary-can achieve the ultimate goal of respecting patient autonomy without adding to the surrogate's burden.

Indexed as

Decision MakingEmpathyHumansInformed Consentadvance care planningautonomyPOLSTRecommending—but not mandating—surrogate signature on a POLST form ensures informed consent while sparing surrogates undue burdensignaturesurrogate

Identifiers

PMID32869653
PMCPMC7983334
OpenAlexW3082286514

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.