Analysis of the current status of notification of critical and severe illness based on content analysis method
Su Cui
Huang Yi
Yang Liu
Wang Xianlin
Wu Jiangxue
Yang Yan
Deng Renli
Abstract：Objective To explore the current status and shortcomings of the notification of critical and severe illness used in Chi-na via content analysis,and to propose optimization strategies to protect patients' medical autonomy.Methods Purposive sampling was used to select 21 tertiary general hospitals-three each from North,Central,South,Northeast,Southeast,North-west,and Southwest China between January 1 and February 28,2022.A total of 21 notifications were collected from each hos-pital.Content analysis was performed using NVivo 12 software to extract nine thematic codes and 41 item frequencies.Results Analysis revealed five main issues:① Lack of standardized naming and content:Only 47.6％(10/21)of documents were title-d notification of critical and severe illness and 80.9％(17/21)omitted a contact number for the authorized representative.② Insufficient humanistic care:52.4％(11/21)employed imperative language,and only 4.8％(1/21)provided space for pa-tients to state their own needs.③ Overly general condition disclosure:42.8％(9/21)offered only a binary"consent to treat-ment"option,with no documents addressing patients' individual treatment preferences.④ Poor specialty adaptation:42.8％(9/21)used a uniform fixed template for complications,leading to highly homogeneous content.⑤ Single decision-maker fo-cus:All notifications(21/21)assumed family members as default decision-makers,neglecting direct patient autonomy.Con-clusion Although notification of critical and severe illness plays a positive role in informing critically ill patients and their fami-lies,and in fulfilling medical disclosure obligations,they suffer from fragmented content,inconsistent formats,lack of human-istic care,and unclear delineation of decision-making authority.To standardize medical documentation and promote doctor-pa-tient communication,a systematic reconstruction of the notice framework is urgently needed.Recommendations include devel-oping standardized content templates,embedding humanistic language,and clearly defining the roles and responsibilities of multiple decision-making subjects(patients,close relatives,and authorized agents).Such measures will provide practical paths and institutional support for the"Healthy China 2030"initiative's goals for human-centered medical care.
Keywords：Notification of critical and severe illnessContent analysisMedical autonomy
Publication Date：2025-02-20
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：6( 28-33 )