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July 4, 2025Palliative Care and Social PracticeOpen Access

What do physicians want at the end? An international qualitative study on physicians’ personal end-of-life preferences and what influences them

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Authors

SMSarah MrozFDFrederick DaenenSDSigrid Dierickx

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Overview

Qualitative study reveals a strong preference against aggressive life-prolonging care among physicians, suggesting personal loss and clinical practice shape end-of-life care.

Key Points

  • To explore physicians' personal end-of-life preferences regarding life-sustaining and life-shortening practices and to examine the socio-cultural factors influencing their views.
  • Conducted a qualitative study utilizing semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 45 physicians (N=45) between January and November 2022.
  • Recruited general practitioners, palliative care physicians, and other medical specialists across Belgium (Flanders), Italy, and the United States (Wisconsin).
  • Applied reflexive thematic analysis via NVivo 14 in compliance with COREQ reporting guidelines.
  • Physicians consistently preferred to avoid aggressive, life-prolonging interventions, pain, and being a burden, prioritizing a peaceful environment and communication with family.
  • Personal bereavement and clinical practice experiences were identified as the most powerful drivers of personal preferences, surpassing cultural, religious, and legal factors.
  • Ongoing reflection and open communication normalized death, fostering personal growth and improving physician support for terminal patients and their families.

Cite This Study

Mroz et al. (2025) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a0aa6d20830b72fa67390b0https://doi.org/10.1177/26323524251351349
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Also Consider

Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context:

  1. 1Facilitating Decision Making at End of Life: How Physicians’ Experiences Can Inform the Work of Clinical Ethicists2026
  2. 2Terminality of life from the perspective of pre-hospital care doctors2024
  3. 3Diverging Perspectives: A Qualitative Study of How Physicians and Informal Caregivers Perceive End-of-Life Communication2026
  4. 4End-of-life situations in cardiology: a qualitative study of physicians' and nurses’ experience in a large university hospital2018 · 33 citations
  5. 5Bringing up the end of life and euthanasia. A mixed method study on consultations with people with dementia and their families in the hospital setting2026