Clinical trial NCT00614003: Evaluation of an Intervention Designed to Enhance the Quality of Decision Support Provided to Patients Making Decisions About End-of-life Place of Care
Official title: Efficacy of a Training Intervention on the Quality of Case Coordinators and Nurses' Decision Support for Patients Deciding About the Place of Care at the End Of-Life: A Randomized Control Trial
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: PHASE2
Conditions: Palliative Care
Keywords: decisional conflict;
decision quality;
place of end of life care;
provider education
Lead sponsor: Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2008-02-13
Enrollment: 90
Sex: ALL
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL

Brief summary: Most dying cancer patients would prefer a home death yet die in an institution. Patients can experience uncertainty when weighing practical considerations, concern for others, and their personal ratings about the desirability and undesirability of various outcomes related to different locations of care. Health professionals, trained in decision support, can help patients to make decisions that are informed by both relevant information and what outcomes are most valued by patients. Therefore, I will study if an educational intervention can help nurses and case managers to strengthen their skills and confidence in providing patient decision support around place of end of life care.

Project Description:

Using a two step approach I will study if the quality of providers decision support can be improved with an education. In step one nurses and care coordinators will be interviewed to identify factors that make it easier or more difficult to provide patient decision support. This information will be used to develop an education program. In step two, nurses and care coordinator volunteers will be assigned by a flip of a coin to either receive the decision support education or not. Before and after the education program the quality of the decision support participants provide will be measured and compared. As well, participants receiving the education program will be asked about their satisfaction with the education program.

Detailed description: Most terminal cancer patients prefer home palliation yet die in an institution. Some experience decisional conflict when weighing options regarding place of care. Community Case Managers and Nurses are well positioned to identify decisional needs and provide decision support; however, they generally lack skills and confidence in doing so. This study aims to determine whether the quality of case managers' and nurses' decision support can be improved with a theory-based skills-building intervention.

In phase one a needs assessment will be conducted with about 20 key informants. In phase two, nurses will be randomly allocated to an intervention or control group. The intervention, informed by the needs assessment, is comprised of: an auto-tutorial; an interactive skills building workshop; a decision support protocol; performance feedback, and educational outreach.

Participants will be assessed: a) at baseline (quality of decision support); b) after the auto-tutorial (knowledge); and six to eight weeks after the other interventions (quality of decision support; confidence and intention to integrate decision support into practice). Between group differences in the primary outcome (quality of decision support scores) will be analyzed using a repeated measures ANOVA.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

Nurses and case coordinators who:

* are members of a regulated health profession
* care for palliative cancer patients, and/or
* cancer patients with advanced disease, and
* work at least 4 shifts per month,
* in a clinical area where end of life care discussions are likely to be undertaken, and
* are proficient in written and spoken English.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Decision support quality audit using simulated patients measured by the validated and reliable Decision Support Analysis Tool
timeFrame: 6 month
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Knowledge of place of care determinants and decision support concepts; self perceived quality of decision support provision in clinical practice and behavior intention survey; acceptability and utility of intervention components
timeFrame: 6 months
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Kingston
country: Canada
facility: St. Elizabeths Health Care Agency
state: Ontario
city: Ottawa
country: Canada
facility: Ottawa Carefor Nursing Services
state: Ontario
city: Ottawa
country: Canada
facility: SCOHS Regional Palliative Care Community Services
state: Ontario
city: Ottawa
country: Canada
facility: The Ottawa Hospital
state: Ontario
city: Toronto
country: Canada
facility: Community Care Access Center's (CCAC)
state: Ontario
Study officials:
affiliation: Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
name: Annette O'Connor, MD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Murray MA, O'Connor A, Stacey D, Wilson KG. Efficacy of a training intervention on the quality of practitioners' decision support for patients deciding about place of care at the end of life: A randomized control trial: Study protocol. BMC Palliat Care. 2008 Apr 30;7:4. doi: 10.1186/1472-684X-7-4.