QJM : monthly journal of the Association of Physicians
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End-of-life care decisions, including treatment such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), are complex issues requiring a patient to have the capacity for effective decision-making. ⋯ Geriatricians make significantly more CPR decisions than general physicians do, but still involve patient and family views in only a minority of cases, and an assessment of capacity is rarely explicitly documented. We suggest a three-step approach to clinical decision making, to increase both the volume and the quality of CPR decisions, which may be improved further by the use of information leaflets for patients and their families.