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IJERPH
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End-of-Life Care and Nursing
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End-of-Life Care and Nursing

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Health Care Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2025 | Viewed by 2773

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Hendrik Heers

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Urology, University Hospital Marburg, Philipps University Marburg, Baldingerstraß, 35043 Marburg, Germany
Interests: palliative care; end-of-life care; urological oncology; drug tumor therapy; endourology and urolithiasis
Dr. Christian Volberg

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Research Group Medical Ethics, University Hospital Marburg, Philipps University Marburg, Baldingerstraße, 35043 Marburg, Germany
Interests: palliative care; end-of-life care; pain management; symptom control; ethics consultation; end-of-life conversation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

End-of-life care is a universally important but still often neglected topic. Talking about death and dying and planning for the final phase of life are challenging for patients, relatives, and healthcare professionals. Nevertheless, it is important to consider the patient’s expectations and wishes to ensure that they can be respected, particularly if the patient loses their ability to communicate. This is especially important for nursing staff who interact with the patients and their relatives even more closely than physicians involved in care for the terminally ill.

The implications and challenges of this topic are multifaceted. While the issue itself is universal, there are considerable cultural, religious, and personal differences around the world and even within individual countries which influence the way we as healthcare providers deal with patients and relatives. Furthermore, our options are often constrained by the limitations of our respective healthcare systems. There are also aspects of palliative and end-of-life care that are specific to certain clinical specialties and diseases that require expert management.

In this Special Issue, we are glad to provide our readers with novel insights into the topic of end-of-life care and nursing. Our aim is to shed light on this issue from the perspective of different healthcare settings and cultures, as well as different disease-specific challenges.

We are delighted to launch this Special Issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health and invite all experts in the field—clinicians and researchers—around the world to submit their work for consideration. Manuscript formats can vary from literature reviews (systematic literature reviews and meta-analyses or narrative reviews) to original research. We particularly welcome multidisciplinary contributions from all fields of end-of-life care and studies with strong implications for practice.

Dr. Hendrik Heers
Dr. Christian Volberg
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • end-of-life care
  • palliative care
  • nursing
  • oncology
  • quality of life
  • hospice

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

10 pages, 260 KiB  
Article
Do We Have a Knowledge Gap with Our Patients?—On the Problems of Knowledge Transfer and the Implications at the End of Life
by Nils Heuser, Hendrik Heers, Martin Gschnell, Fabian Urhahn, Severin Schrade and Christian Volberg
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2025, 22(2), 247; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22020247 - 10 Feb 2025
Viewed by 840
Abstract
Background: Cancer patients are often unaware of their exact diagnosis, stage of disease, and prognosis. This affects their treatment, quality of life, and end-of-life decisions. In this study, patients with skin and urological cancers were asked about their level of knowledge about their [...] Read more.
Background: Cancer patients are often unaware of their exact diagnosis, stage of disease, and prognosis. This affects their treatment, quality of life, and end-of-life decisions. In this study, patients with skin and urological cancers were asked about their level of knowledge about their disease and its treatment in order to highlight this problem and describe possible effects on end-of-life decisions. Methods: 150 patients with advanced skin cancer and 88 patients with advanced urological cancer were interviewed using a structured questionnaire at a German university hospital. Descriptive and statistical analysis of the data were performed. The significance level was set at alpha ≤ 0.05. Results: 67% of skin cancer patients could not state their exact stage. Of these, younger patients (<60 y) were more likely to state their stage correctly (p = 0.017). All of those patients knew about their therapy. A total of 56 patients had distant and 143 had local metastasis. The majority was aware of that (84%, 78%). Also, 95% of the urological cancer patients stated that they knew their stage of disease, but not a single patient could tell it correctly. All urological patients knew about the presence of metastasis. A total of 30% of urological cancer patients were unaware of their tumor therapy, and one patient stated that he did not receive any treatment, even though he did. The majority of patients could not correctly name their exact therapy. Conclusions: In the patients observed, it was found that many of them were unaware of their stage of disease, which can have a huge impact on their end-of-life decisions, such as the type of treatment they want. Many patients were also unaware of their own treatment. There is a risk that false hopes of cure may be attached to therapies and that, as a result, patients may be less likely to opt for palliative care with a focus on maintaining quality of life. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue End-of-Life Care and Nursing)
13 pages, 1245 KiB  
Article
Assisted Suicide in Austria: Nurses’ Understanding of Patients’ Requests and the Role of Patient Symptoms
by Matthias Unseld, Alexa L. Meyer, Tamina-Laetitia Vielgrader, Theresa Wagner, Dorothea König, Chiara Popinger, Bärbel Sturtzel, Gudrun Kreye and Elisabeth L. Zeilinger
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2025, 22(2), 218; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22020218 - 4 Feb 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1433
Abstract
This study explores Austrian palliative and hospice care nurses’ experiences regarding assisted suicide (AS). Following its legalization in 2022, occupational groups affected by the legislation, such as nurses, have been left without clear guidance or instructions on how to navigate this new landscape. [...] Read more.
This study explores Austrian palliative and hospice care nurses’ experiences regarding assisted suicide (AS). Following its legalization in 2022, occupational groups affected by the legislation, such as nurses, have been left without clear guidance or instructions on how to navigate this new landscape. This study aimed to explore how nurses perceive their patients’ desire to die and its connection to the symptoms experienced by the patients. A cross-sectional online questionnaire survey was disseminated to all palliative and hospice care facilities in Austria and was eventually completed by 145 nurses, focusing on their understanding of patients’ requests for AS and the severity of patients’ symptoms. Factor analysis was used to identify symptom clusters, and Spearman rank correlations were employed to explore associations between nurses’ understanding of AS and factors such as patient symptoms, nurse demographics, and attitudes toward AS. The results indicate that psychosocial factors, particularly loss of dignity (63.6%) and autonomy (76.4%), were the most frequently reported severe symptoms. Understanding patients’ decisions was significantly associated with nurses’ general support for AS (r = 0.34, p < 0.001) but not with age, work experience, or religious beliefs. Factor analysis revealed four symptom clusters, with ’loss of dignity’ showing a small but significant correlation with nurses’ understanding of patients’ requests (r = 0.17, p = 0.044). The present findings highlight the importance of integrating psychosocial support into palliative care and emphasize the need for clear guidelines and training to better support nurses in managing AS-related challenges. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue End-of-Life Care and Nursing)
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