Family members and other surrogate decision makers for a critically ill patient may respond differently to a physician's prognosis for a patient. The response may impact decisions such as continuation of life support.
Factors impacting the response to a physician's prognosis:
(1) religious beliefs
(2) confidence in the ability to predict
(3) status of the physician
(4) confidence of the physician
(5) experience with the accuracy of past predictions
(6) predictions made by others
Factor
Accept
Not Accept
religious beliefs
fatalistic
belief in prayers and miracles
confidence in the ability to predict
high
distrust
physician
senior and sure
junior
level of confidence
high
low
experience with past predictions
accurate
inaccurate
predictions made by others
same
discrepant
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