Enabling Advance Directive Completion

Not Applicable

Completed

Conditions: Advance Directives

Interventions: Other: Care-as-Usual
Other: The Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention

Registration Number: NCT01746368

Lead Sponsor: US Department of Veterans Affairs

Brief Summary: Objectives: The objectives of the pilot study were to (1) test the feasibility of recruitment, randomization, and retention; (2) test the feasibility of a standardized Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention; (3) evaluate the feasibility of the assessment process and data collection procedures; (4) evaluate the Veterans' satisfaction with the intervention and their Advance Directive decisions; and (5) evaluate preliminary effects of the Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention.

Research Design: This was a prospective, randomized, controlled, unblinded pilot study. Alabama Veterans who received care through the Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center were randomized to either the Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention or Care-as-Usual in a 2:1 ratio respectively. Data related to recruitment, randomization, and retention; study completion by subjects; completeness of data collection; Veterans' satisfaction; and preliminary effects of the intervention were collected, analyzed, and evaluated. The length of the study was one year.

Methods: The setting for the study was Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center care sites. A convenience sample of fifty subjects was recruited from Tuscaloosa VA outpatient clinics including Selma, residential settings, Home Based Primary Care, and the Mobile Health Unit. The level of care of subjects was all-inclusive, excepting current Hospice or Palliative Care. Selection procedures included self-referral and referral by Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center staff. Entry requirements were the meeting of all inclusion criteria and verification of no exclusion criteria. The Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention was a manualized education, support, and guidance session provided by a Registered Nurse that included information about risks, benefits, and alternatives of specific choices. The Care-as-Usual was a session with the social worker who explained what the Advance Directive is, and guided the Veteran regarding the process of completing the Advance Directive document, without providing information about risks, benefits, and alternatives of specific choices. Study enrollment period was six months. The primary study outcome measure was Advance Directive completion rate. This pilot was not a hypothesis testing study. The underlying hypothesis of the eventual full study is that the Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention is associated with Advance Directive completion rates at least comparable to that of the As-Usual care.

Significance: This study supports the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) mission to provide Veteran-centered care. It provides important information needed to plan a full study of the effectiveness of a specific Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention to facilitate Advance Directive completion by rural Alabama Veterans.

Detailed Description: Background:

The VHA mission to serve the health care needs of America's veterans assumes a veteran-centered approach - one that evolves not only from the health team's assessment of needs, but especially one that begins with the veteran's assessment of his or her own needs. Preliminary data from the Alabama Veterans Rural Health Initiative study suggest that approximately 30% of rural Alabama veterans do not have an Advance Directive and want help completing one. Rural Alabama veterans live in counties with a higher percent of African American minorities, lower levels of education, and higher family poverty rates, than the average for the US population at large. Prior studies have demonstrated that disparities in Advance Directive completion rates may be related to race, level of income, and level of education. VHA research priorities include addressing the challenges of minority health care needs and the disparities that arise in healthcare delivery. Although many studies evidence the effectiveness of education and counseling in facilitating Advance Directive completion, data are lacking that demonstrate the efficacy of resource-conservative nursing interventions to enable Advance Directive completion by rural, southern minorities. This pilot lays the groundwork to address this evidence gap.

Objectives:

The objectives of the pilot study were to (1) test the feasibility of recruitment, randomization, and retention; (2) test the feasibility of a standardized Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention; (3) evaluate the feasibility of the assessment process and data collection procedures; (4) evaluate the Veterans' satisfaction with the intervention and their Advance Directive decisions; and (5) evaluate preliminary effects of the Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention.

Methods:

A prospective, randomized, controlled pilot study. Fifty Alabama veterans who receive care at the Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center were randomized to either the Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention or Care-as-Usual. The Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention was a manualized education, support, and guidance session provided by a Registered Nurse that included information about risks, benefits, and alternatives of specific choices. The Care-as-Usual was a session with the social worker who explained what the Advance Directive is, and guided the Veteran regarding the process of completing the Advance Directive document, without providing information about risks, benefits, and alternatives of specific choices. Data related to recruitment, randomization, and retention; study completion by subjects; completeness of data collection; Veterans' satisfaction; and preliminary effects of the intervention were collected, analyzed, and evaluated.

Status:

The Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center Institutional Review Board (IRB) has approved this study. Study is closed.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status: COMPLETED

Sex: All

Target Recruitment: 50

Inclusion Criteria

Signed informed consent
Male or female
Any race or ethnic origin
19 years of age (i.e. minors are excluded)
Veteran indicates he/she has no Advance Directive
Speaks and understands English
Any category of rurality through urbanity of home residence or place of habitation
Veteran is willing to extend the screening/baseline visit or return within 30 days for the advance care planning (ACP) session

Exclusion Criteria

Diagnosis of dementia (all causes) or other cognitive disorder documented in computerized patient record system problem list. (Note: this would include, for example, a mental disability that precludes informed consent capacity, e.g. a documented condition including an age level equivalency understanding of a child of age 6)
Diagnosis of serious mental illness (i.e. schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar I, major depression with psychotic features) documented in computerized patient record system problem list
Actively considering plans of suicide or homicide per self report during screening interview direct question
Psychotic symptoms that impair the subject's ability to give informed consent
Current hospice care or palliative care recipient. (Note: The major predicted potential impact of this intervention is for Veterans who typically receive little or no ACP support. Veterans who receive palliative care/hospice care at Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center (VAMC) typically receive timely and full ACP support including Advance Directive completion support if desired. Veterans receiving palliative care and hospice care at Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center may tire easily and/or have pain/discomfort problems that could easily be exacerbated by research procedures. These research procedures themselves have the potential to add to end of life distress.)
Currently incarcerated

Study & Design

Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL

Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Care-as-Usual	Care-as-Usual	The Care-as-Usual was a session with the social worker who explained what the Advance Directive is, and guided the Veteran regarding the process of completing the Advance Directive document, without providing information about risks, benefits, and alternatives of specific choices. Subjects in this arm who desired information about risks, benefits, and alternatives of specific choices before randomization were scheduled for the Care-as-Usual session after they received that information from the Primary Care Provider.
Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention	The Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention	The Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention was a manualized education, support, and guidance session provided by a Registered Nurse that included information about risks, benefits, and alternatives of specific choices.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Number of Participants Who Completed an Advance Directive	Up to 1 month after intervention	An advance directive was considered completed upon confirmation of the scanned document in the medical record.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Satisfaction	For participants who received the allocated intervention, up to one month after intervention; for all others, up to 90 days after consenting to the study.	Score on the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire-8 (CSQ-8). The overall score is produced by summing all item responses. For the CSQ-8, scores range from 8 to 32, with higher values indicating higher satisfaction. Response options differ from item to item, but all are based on a four-point scale. All items are positively worded; however, the directionality of response options span the spectrum from very negative to very positive; and, the numerical anchors for items are reversed randomly (from high to low or low to high) from item to item to minimize stereotypic response sets. The CSQ-8 has no subscales and reports a single score measuring a single dimension of overall satisfaction.