Clinical Research Directory

Prehospital Care of End-of-Life Patients by the Strasbourg Mobile Emergency and Resuscitation Service: A Qualitative Study of Healthcare Professionals' Experiences and Use of a Comfort Care Booklet

Prehospital end-of-life care presents complex clinical, ethical, relational, and organizational challenges for healthcare professionals working in the Strasbourg Mobile Emergency and Resuscitation Service (SMUR). A comfort care booklet was introduced in the service in March 2025 to harmonize practices and improve the quality of palliative care delivered in the prehospital setting. However, professionals' experiences, perceptions of the booklet, its perceived impact on practice, and their needs have not yet been explored. This qualitative descriptive study will explore the experiences, perceptions, and needs of SMUR healthcare professionals regarding prehospital end-of-life care and the implementation of the comfort care booklet. Individual semi-structured face-to-face interviews will be conducted, audio-recorded, transcribed anonymously, and analyzed using an inductive thematic approach. Approximately 12 to 20 participants will be recruited through purposive sampling, with recruitment continuing until data saturation is reached.

Practice Analysis of Care, Paraclinical Exams and Treatments Received by Geriatric Patients Both During the Last Week and the Last 24 Hours of Their Lives.

End-of-life care is a core topic for geriatricians. One of the key aspects of end-of-life management is deciding when to discontinue active care measures (for example blood pressure monitoring, blood tests and X-rays) in favor of exclusive comfort care. In this retrospective observational study, the investigators looked at the care measures, treatments and paraclinical exams received by geriatric patients both one week and 24 hours before their death.

Burden, Mortality and Supply Costs in Intensive Care Unit Patients

This study systematically observes in a pragmatic trail under real world conditions the association between strategies of therapy (maximal therapy, withhold, withdraw) and treatment success in three endpoint related initial risk groups (high, intermediate, low risk) regarding three endpoints (burden, mortality and supply costs).