A 2021 questionnaire explored the perspectives of physicians and nurses at Landspítali Iceland University Hospital (LIUH) regarding medical assistance in dying (MAID). The inquiry focused on their supporting arguments, the required eligibility standards, and preferred methods for carrying it out. Earlier investigations from 1995 and 2010 that targeted the same professional groups provided a basis for direct comparison. Questionnaires were dispatched to 357 physicians and 516 nurses employed at LIUH. The instrument contained seven primary items plus various additional sub-items. Replies were examined according to occupational category, age bracket, and whether the respondent held specialist credentials. Analysis relied on both summary statistics and tests for statistical inference.
Altogether, 135 physicians responded (38% response rate), and 103 nurses responded (20% response rate). These replies accounted for 27% of the entire targeted population. Among all who answered, 145 individuals (61%) supported MAID, most often justifying their stance on the principle of patient self-determination. The 95% margin of error for this overall level of support was ± 6.2 %. When set against the 19% recorded in 2010, endorsement levels had tripled by 2021 (P < 0.05). Roughly 18% of respondents rejected MAID under all circumstances, mainly invoking the obligation to safeguard human life or citing a fundamental clash with the proper duties of healthcare staff. In addition, 19% of participants expressed no firm opinion on the issue, commonly attributing their hesitation to the subject’s intricate and multifaceted nature. Relative to prior questionnaires, this investigation documented a marked increase in supportive attitudes toward MAID across the sampled healthcare workforce. Participant responses illuminated the core factors shaping their positions, notably the balance between honoring patient dignity and personal choice on one side and the professional responsibility to avoid ending life or to focus exclusively on comfort measures on the other, along with observable variations by professional role
