Conceptual barriers to palliative sedation: insights from focus group interviews with specialist palliative care professionals

Even within specialist palliative care, different end-of-life treatment concepts are not experienced clear-cut. These conceptual ambiguities impede appropriate initiation of palliative sedation. Overcoming such barriers requires multi-level interventions: enhancing practitioners' definitional knowledge, fostering awareness of clinical intention during end-of-life treatment, promoting interprofessional dialogue, and developing more explicit clinical guidelines.