Legalised active assistance in dying: palliative care stakeholders' national e-consultation.

Objectives: There is a growing debate surrounding the legalisation of medical assistance in dying (MAID). MAID is currently prohibited by the French law; however, the debate has recently been reinvigorated in France. This study aims to collect opinions of palliative care stakeholders (PCS) regarding the legalisation of MAID and to identify the factors associated with their opinions.

The effects of foot reflexology on symptoms of discomfort in palliative care: a feasibility study.

Background: In palliative care, the relief of discomfort is sought by an overall approach, combining prescribed medication and additional therapies, such as foot reflexology (FR). The main objective of this study was to assess the feasibility of FR in a population of inpatients in a palliative care unit (PCU).The precariousness of the patients led us to perform a feasibility study and not a cohort study from the outset.

Impact of advance directives on the variability between intensivists in the decisions to forgo life-sustaining treatment.

Background: There is wide variability between intensivists in the decisions to forgo life-sustaining treatment (DFLST). Advance directives (ADs) allow patients to communicate their end-of-life wishes to physicians. We assessed whether ADs reduced variability in DFLSTs between intensivists.

[The place of the psychologist in shared medical decision-making in palliative care].

The concept of shared medical decision-making is particularly suited to palliative care. Psychologists within the teams work closely with doctors and caregivers to ensure the patient is cared for as a whole person and as an individual. The care of a 29-year-old patient illustrates the issues involved in this decision-making process.