Attitudes of Japanese physiotherapists towards death and terminal illness

A preliminary study was carried out by means of a three-part questionnaire to determine attitudes of 146 physiotherapy clinicians in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, towards death and terminal illness. This self-administered postal survey was cross-sectional. Results indicated that there was little discernible difference in the response to the questions among the subgroups vis-a-vis gender and years of professional practice. Topics of death and terminal illness were found to have been subjects that were relatively openly discussed in the respondents' families. The majority of the respondents desired "dignified death" for themselves and to be informed of their condition if they became terminally ill. Although they were willing to treat persons with terminal illness, the respondents were psychologically uncomfortable in the situation, and the majority of them seemed to lack sufficient knowledge and, therefore, necessary execution skills to provide the necessary psychological support when subjected to such a situation. Therefore, education and training of physiotherapists enabling them to professionally confront persons with terminal illness would be of significant value if introduced into the physiotherapy curricula.