Table 2

Additional responses of physicians (and on similar questions for nurses)

Question	Answer	Physician	Nurse
Note: N=72 physicians. Percentages usually calculated based on number answering question, ranging from 66 to 71 for opinion (non-demographic) questions.
Informs patients of major implications of diagnosis and treatment	50–85% of time	8.5%
	90%	15.5
	95%	19.7
	97–99%	19.7
	100% of time	36.6
How often make exceptions to rule on informing	0% (never)	36.8%
	1% of time	14.7
	2–5%	22.0
	10%	17.6
	15–95% of time	8.8
		Top 5/	First	Top 5/	First
Factors most commonly included in top 5 which may influence decision to inform patient	Emotional stability	51%	11%	74%	30%
	Improve compliance	44	4	53	6
	Age	33	24	30	15
	Patient requests diagnosis	33	8	62	20
	Prognosis	28	3	45	2
	Acceptance of therapy	24	6	47	5
	Medical sophistication	24	4	9	2
	Harmful to outcome	19	3	18	2
	Length of survival	14	1	26	3
How did you acquire strategy for dealing with informing patients (% ranking in top 7)	Other	45.8%
	Clinical training	13.9
	Medical school	12.5
	Personal factors	8.3
	Experience	8.3
	Family, friends	2.8
	Commonly accepted	1.4
Received formal training in medical ethics	Yes	41%	46%
How likely is strategy of informing patients to change	No possibility	9%
	Very unlikely	30
	Unlikely	30
	Probably	26
	Certainly	6
Interested in participating in structured discussion of this topic	Yes	52%	79%
If you were a patient, would you want to be fully informed	Yes	100%	100%
When patient's death is expected outcome, you feel that (ranked first)	Best therapeutic alternatives have been followed	86%
	Medical profession has failed this patient	2
	This is a personal failure	4
	None ranked	8
Medical specialty (percentage of sample)	Internal medicine	19.4%
	Surgery	18.1
	Neuropsychology	9.7
	Family practice	8.3
	Plastic surgery	5.6
	Cardiology	4.2
	Physical medicine	4.2
	Gastroenterology	2.8
	Pulmonary	1.4
	Unknown	26.4
Country of medical school	USA	2%
	Other	38
Physician age	29–40	31%
	41–50	39
	51–60	19
	Over 60	3
	No answer	8