Practitioner acceptance of the concepts of medical futility and extraordinary/ordinary treatments Percentage replying under each category and overall mean (UK nurses, with overall figure for US doctors and nurses in brackets) on a scale of 1 to 5 (1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree) to the following questions:
| 1. The distinction between extraordinary (or heroic) measures and ordinary treatments is helpful in making termination of treatment decisions. |
| 2. Clinicians need better guidelines to help determine when treatments are medically futile. |
| 3. Clinicians and patients (UK: dying people) generally agree about what constitutes medically futile treatment. |
| 4. Clinicians are not required to provide medically futile treatment, even if a terminally ill patient or family member demands it. |
| Question | 1 strongly disagree | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 strongly agree | Mean |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1) Heroic distinction useful | 3% (4%) | 8% (7%) | 19% (19%) | 43% (31%) | 26% (39%) | 3.80 (3.92) |
| 2) Futility guidelines needed | 1% (4%) | 5% (7%) | 15% (19%) | 38% (32%) | 41% (39%) | 4.12 (3.94) |
| 3) Dying agree | 23% (18%) | 42% (33%) | 18% (28%) | 15% (17%) | 2% (5%) | 2.32 (2.57) |
| 4) Futile treatment not required | 5% (26%) | 13% (25%) | 27% (19%) | 37% (14%) | 17% (16%) | 3.48 (2.67) |