Healthcare Professionals’ Perceived Burden Related to Care in the Dying Phase – Results of a Cross-Sectional Explorative Study on General Wards and Intensive Care Units

Most patients dying in hospitals die outside of specialist palliative care, making healthcare professionals of all disciplines responsible for the care of the dying. This cross-sectional study assessed how burdened healthcare professionals on non-palliative care hospital wards are when caring for dying patients. Descriptive and inferential statistics (chi² and t tests) were used to analyze the data. N = 201 healthcare professionals on ten non-palliative care hospital wards participated in the survey (four general wards, six intensive care units). Intensive care unit staff reported a higher total burden related to care in the dying phase than general ward staff (d = 0.41; p = .005). “High demands of caring for dying patients”, “unexpected death”, and “special relationship with informal caregivers” were the most severe and prevalent burden factors in healthcare professionals. Results show specific burden factors that should be prioritized when implementing interventions to reduce burden in healthcare professionals.