Urgency for Kidney Palliative Care in Chinese Maintenance Hemodialysis Patients

To understand nephrology medical staff’s awareness, basic knowledge, practical ability, and the barriers to palliative kidney care in maintenance hemodialysis patients in mainland China. This cross-sectional descriptive study employed convenience sampling of medical staff (physicians and nurses) working in Nephrology Departments in mainland China. Independent predictors of self-assessment ability for palliative care were determined using multivariate binary logistic regression. Responses were received from medical staff in 28 provinces, and 657 questionnaires were analyzed. Among the participants, 53.1% (349 out of 657) were doctors, and only 4.3% claimed to be confident in supplying palliative care to patients on HD. The average score of self-assessing ability for palliative care was 2.65±1.15 (range 1-5). Among the 580 participants who experienced patient withdrawal from dialysis, only 16.0% reported that their patients had well-planned withdrawal from dialysis. Male (OR [95% CI], 0.585 [0.34-0.99], p=0.048), nurse (OR [95% CI], 1.81 [1.01-3.27], p=0.047), more experience in dealing with deceased cases (OR [95%CI], 1.28 [1.02-1.61], p=0.034), less experience of medical disputes before/after withdrawal from dialysis (OR [95%CI], 0.62 [0.40-0.98], p=0.041), and palliative care training experiences (OR [95%CI], 2.33 [1.86-2.91], p