American journal of public health
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How do health care professionals assess the care of hospital patients near the end of life? Are physicians and nurses aware of and in agreement with national recommendations regarding patients' rights to forgo life-sustaining medical treatments and to receive adequate pain control? ⋯ In summary, many physicians and nurses were disturbed by the degree to which technological solutions influence care during the final days of a terminal illness and by the undertreatment of pain. However, changes in the care of dying patients may not have kept pace with national recommendations, in part because many physicians and nurses disagreed with and may have been unaware of some key guidelines, such as the permissibility of withdrawing treatments.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Recall of AIDS public service announcements and their impact on the ranking of AIDS as a national problem.
The efficacy of two public service announcements from Phase V of the "America Responds to AIDS" (ARTA) campaign was assessed at two sites. Participants were randomly assigned to view a local news program, one with an ARTA public service announcement appearing six times and the other with no AIDS public service announcements. During telephone interviews with 907 participants 1 to 3 nights after viewing, 21% at Site A and 59% at Site B could correctly recall the ARTA public service announcements. Absolute mentions of AIDS as an important national issue increased.
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Required recertification of physicians has been proposed as a way to improve quality of care. Hospital medical staff quality assurance committees may be more meaningful targets for reform than individual physicians. Review standards are needed to make these committees effective monitors. Increasing regulatory attention to medical staff peer review can be expected.