Experiences, Knowledge, and Opinions on Palliative Care among Romanian General Practitioners.

Aim To assess experience, knowledge, and opinions of Romanian general practitioners (GPs) on palliative health care in Romania. Methods A questionnaire survey was performed among 1283 GPs in five districts of Romania in 2004. The data were collected on the GPs' self-assessed experience in, knowledge of, and opinion on palliative care, entered into a database, and analyzed. The GPs were also asked to indicate if they needed to improve their knowledge about palliative care. Results The response rate was 71%. GPs mostly reported having limited experience in providing palliative care, with 24% reporting to have provided palliative care frequently, and 55% reporting to have it provided sometimes. Significant correlations were found between the GPs' experience in palliative care provision and their age, sex, and place of work. The majority of Romanian GPs reported that their medical knowledge was inadequate for the provision of care to terminal patients at home. Over 80% of GPs agreed to develop palliative care services and to participate in a training program. Conclusion GPs in Romania reported to recognize the need for improvement of palliative care delivery in their country. They expressed a need for better knowledge of palliative care and agreed that multidisciplinary teams to provide palliative care at home would be the best form of delivering this type of health care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]