Palliative care and psychological counseling as protective factors of the quality of life of terminal patients and their families: monography

Abstract

This research study was designed and conducted to explore among Israeli doctors in daily contact with terminally-ill patients how the doctors’ knowledge of and views on palliative care (PC) and the Terminally-Ill Patients Act, 2005, affected their referral of dying patients to palliative/ hospice care. The study followed a mixedmethods design, comprising first a qualitative in-depth interview of 15 oncologists, family doctors and hospice home care specialists and, second, a quantitative selfadministered structured questionnaire completed by 90 doctors from the same three disciplines. The study’s theoretical framework was furnished by Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior.