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Recent literature has suggested that earlier referral to palliative care can improve quality of life and prognosis. The decision to refer to palliative care is a complex process that can involve an interplay of interpersonal, subjective and institutional factors. Negotiating this referral process can be challenging to a medical specialist from a professional and personal viewpoint. What remains unknown is what actually influences the individual clinician to refer a patient to palliative care.
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Broom et al. (2012) studied this question.
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