ArticleBMC palliative care2024
Continuous palliative sedation until death: a qualitative study of palliative care clinicians' experiences.
Article in BMC palliative care, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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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.
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.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Demographic and clinical characteristics, practices, and outcomes of continuous palliative sedation: A multi-setting, province-wide retrospective cohort study.Palliative medicine · 2026Article
- Conceptual barriers to palliative sedation: insights from focus group interviews with specialist palliative care professionals.BMC palliative care · 2025Article
- Recognising and alleviating unbearable suffering in residents living in Swiss nursing homes: a grounded theory study on nursing staff's perspectives on sedating medications and palliative sedation.BMC palliative care · 2025Article
- "Is this sedation?" - a Group Delphi process to define cut-off doses and dosing intervals for potentially sedating drugs in palliative care.BMC palliative care · 2025Article
- An easier way to die?-A qualitative interview study on specialist palliative care team members' views on dying under sedation.Palliative medicine · 2025Article
- End-of-life sedation and spousal grief: Exploring bereavement narratives with and without continuous deep sedation.Palliative care and social practice · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe practice of continuous palliative sedation until death is the subject of much medical and ethical debate, which is reflected in the inconsistency that persists in the literature regarding the definition and indications of palliative sedation.
aimThis study aims to gain a better understanding of palliative care clinicians' experiences with continuous palliative sedation.
designWe conducted a qualitative study based on focus group discussions. SETTING/
participantsWe conducted six focus groups with a total of 28 palliative care clinicians (i.e., 15 nurses, 12 physicians, and 1 end-of-life doula) from diverse care settings across Canada, where assisted dying has recently been legalized.
resultsAn interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to consolidate the data into six key themes: responding to suffering; grappling with uncertainty; adapting care to ensure ongoing quality; grounding clinical practice in ethics; combining medical expertise, relational tact, and reflexivity; and offering an alternative to assisted death.
conclusionsInteraction with the patient's family, uncertainty about the patient's prognosis, the concurrent practice of assisted dying, and the treatment of existential suffering influence the quality of sedation and indicate a lack of clear palliative care guidelines. Nevertheless, clinicians exhibit a reflective and adaptive capacity that can facilitate good practice.
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Registered trials
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.