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Article History

Received: 17 April 2023

Accepted: 1 September 2023

First Online: 10 October 2023

Declarations

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: Participation in the study was voluntary for all respondents. All participants were informed in advance about the study and that they would not be harmed if they did not participate or withdrew from participation. All gave their written consent in advance. The interviewer and the other persons responsible for the study were available to all participants at any time for further questions. In addition, participants were informed immediately before the interviews about the study, the processing and storage of the data and the intention to publish the results. Furthermore, questions were clarified prior to the interviews and participants were informed that they could stop the study at any time, even during the interview. The data collected was pseudonymised for thematic analysis and in a second step anonymised for this article and further archiving. The privacy and confidentiality of participants' personal data was treated in accordance with applicable data protection laws and was not shared with third parties at any time during the study. After completion of the study, all audio-visual files will be deleted by the end of 2023 and the anonymised transcripts will be stored and archived in a secure electronic repository at the Clinic for Palliative Medicine for ten years in accordance with applicable guidelines. After this period, the data will be destroyed.As explained above, due consideration has been given to the Declaration of Helsinki: The rights and interests of individual subjects, in particular privacy, confidentiality and freely given informed consent, as well as the right to withdraw participation without consent, were respected at all times, the importance of the objective outweighed the minimal risks and burdens to subjects, and the study was conducted in accordance with national laws and regulations. The study was approved by the independent ethics committee of the Medical Faculty of RWTH Aachen University on 18 January 2022 (registration number EK 002/22).

: Consent for publication was included in the written informed consent form, which was accepted and signed by all participants.

: The authors declare no competing interests.