[The living will. An analysis of state of knowledge of patients in the HELIOS hospital Leisnig]. / Die Patientenverfügung. Eine Wissensstandanalyse von Patienten im HELIOS Krankenhaus Leisnig.

ABSTRACT

On September 1, 2009, the Guardianship Law (Betreuungsgesetz) changed for the third time. Thus, the rights of the people living in Germany have been improved with reference to the preventive instruments. The aim of the work was to find about the subject to what extent patients understand the subject and how many of them have such a preventive document. The area of research has been examined on the basis of a standardized questionnaire drawn up by means of anonymous data collection in the quantitative research design. After the pretest, the survey was done in form of a documented Face-to-face-questioning in the HELIOS hospital Leisnig. The sample size comprised 139 patients from which 84 patients (37 female, 47 male) agreed with the survey. 25 percent of the questioned patients knew the law of living will (Patientenverfügungsgesetz) and 27 percent knew about the content of preventive instruments. 46.4 percent of the surveyed patients, aged between 70 and 75, had at least one preventive instrument. 63.1 percent of the patients believed that a living will has to be in a written form. 21.4 percent said that, in addition, the document has to be authenticated by a notary public. A study by van Oorschot claims that between ten and 15 percent of the people living in Germany have a living will (van Oorschot 2008, p. 443, Sahm & Schroeder 2009, p. 98). The results of this study show a much higher proportion of existing living wills. For the majority of respondents a preventive instrument plays still a minor role, but 46 percent of the population already use a preventive instrument to make provisions for themselves. 27 percent did express their will in theform of a living will. Nevertheless, the survey shows a lack of knowledge of the correct handling of the living will.