Investigation of the practice of palliative sedation (PS) in palliative wards, hospices and in specialized outpatient palliative care (SAPV) in Germany
Palliative sedation can be an important option as a palliative treatment measure for patients with refractory symptoms and correspondingly high level of suffering. Despite many discussions regarding the ethical legitimacy of palliative sedation, it is now regarded as an integral part of palliative care both in Germany and internationally. In 2009, the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) developed a ten-point framework for clinical practice in palliative sedation. To this day, this remains the most comprehensive and recognized recommendation for clinical handling. Nevertheless, it remains unclear to what extent the current and actual treatment practice of palliative sedation is actually oriented to the EAPC framework. Especially in Germany there are almost no statistical evaluations in this respect. Accordingly, a questionnaire based on the contents of the EAPC framework was designed and sent to all German palliative stations, hospices and SAPV teams in order to gain an initial overview of the treatment practice of palliative sedation in Germany.
The project is funded by the ELAN fonds.
Scientific Staff: MD Carsten Klein
Dissertation project: Philip Klosa
Project-related publications:www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24743852
