Spiritual Care in Improving Quality of Life of Patients, Caregivers, and Hospital Staff

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Malignant Neoplasm
• Interventions: Procedure: spiritual therapy; Other: questionnaire administration; Other: survey administration; Other: counseling intervention; Other: psychosocial support for caregiver; Procedure: psychosocial assessment and care

• Registration Number: NCT01432431
• Lead Sponsor: City of Hope Medical Center

Brief Summary

This clinical trial studies spiritual care in improving quality of life of patients, caregivers, and hospital staff. Spiritual care may help understand the impact cancer and its treatment has on patients, caregivers and hospital staff.

Detailed Description

OBJECTIVES:

I. To improve the quality of spiritual care provided by palliative care teams. II. To measure the effectiveness of integrating spiritual care recommendations in palliative care at City of Hope (COH) and the impact it has on cancer patients, families, and hospital staff.

OUTLINE:

The expanded psychosocial/spiritual assessment administered by social workers includes a spiritual history and a spiritual needs screening. Social worker knowledge and competence is surveyed at baseline, immediately after the course, and after a bedside chaplain-mentoring process. Inpatient cancer patients' and their caregivers' perceptions about spiritual care is surveyed at baseline prior to the social work curriculum and after the course has been completed and the new psychosocial/spiritual assessment has been implemented. Data collected from patients, family members, and staff includes number of unduplicated palliative care patients screened for spiritual concerns, spiritual history, number and type of spiritual issues, number of referrals to the chaplain, number seen by the chaplain, number of unduplicated palliative care patients with documented spiritual care plan, number of staff development sessions offered and topics, attendance per topic, advance directives, and referrals to hospice.

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2011-09-08
• Study First Submitted QC: 2011-09-09
• Study First Posted: 2011-09-13
• Study Start: 2011-10
• Status Verified: 2013-09
• Primary Completion: 2013-09
• Study Completion: 2013-09
• Last Update Submitted: 2013-09-04
• Last Update Posted: 2013-09-05

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 100

Inclusion Criteria

• Admitted during the study quarter
• Admitted >= 5 days
• English speaking
• Alert and able to answer questions

Exclusion Criteria

• Non-cancer diagnosis
• Previously accrued to study

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: SINGLE_GROUP

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Supportive care (spiritual care)	spiritual therapy	See Detailed Description.
Supportive care (spiritual care)	questionnaire administration	See Detailed Description.
Supportive care (spiritual care)	survey administration	See Detailed Description.
Supportive care (spiritual care)	counseling intervention	See Detailed Description.
Supportive care (spiritual care)	psychosocial support for caregiver	See Detailed Description.
Supportive care (spiritual care)	psychosocial assessment and care	See Detailed Description.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change over time in number of unduplicated palliative care patients screened for spiritual concerns and spiritual history	At baseline and quarterly for one year	Nonparametric Mann-Whitney University test will be used to test for differences between cohorts of patients and of families at the two different measurement points. The Wilcoxon paired nonparametric test will be used to test for change over time for staff survey results.
Change over time in number and type of spiritual issues	At baseline and quarterly for one year	Nonparametric Mann-Whitney University test will be used to test for differences between cohorts of patients and of families at the two different measurement points. The Wilcoxon paired nonparametric test will be used to test for change over time for staff survey results.
Change over time in number of referrals to the chaplain and number seen by the chaplain	At baseline and quarterly for one year	Nonparametric Mann-Whitney University test will be used to test for differences between cohorts of patients and of families at the two different measurement points. The Wilcoxon paired nonparametric test will be used to test for change over time for staff survey results.
Change over time in number of unduplicated palliative care patients with documented spiritual care plan	At baseline and quarterly for one year	Nonparametric Mann-Whitney University test will be used to test for differences between cohorts of patients and of families at the two different measurement points. The Wilcoxon paired nonparametric test will be used to test for change over time for staff survey results.
Change over time in number of staff development sessions offered and topics, attendance per topic, advance directives, and referrals to hospice	At baseline and quarterly for one year	Nonparametric Mann-Whitney University test will be used to test for differences between cohorts of patients and of families at the two different measurement points. The Wilcoxon paired nonparametric test will be used to test for change over time for staff survey results.
Identification of common themes and patterns that answer the key evaluation questions	At baseline and quarterly for one year	Analyzed using Atlas.ti. coding and analysis. Qualitative data, e.g., open ended questions, included narrative responses by staff summarized for reporting purposes.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

City of Hope Medical Center; 🇺🇸 Duarte, California, United States