Resident reflections on end-of-life education: a mixed-methods study of the 3 Wishes Project

OBJECTIVE

The objectives of this study were to describe residents' experiences with end-of-life (EOL) education during a rotation in the intensive care unit (ICU), and to understand the possible influence of the 3 Wishes Project.

DESIGN

We enrolled dying patients, their families and 1-3 of their clinicians in the 3 Wishes Project, eliciting and honouring a set of 3 wishes to bring peace to the final days of a critically ill patient's life, and ease the grieving process for families. We conducted semistructured interviews with 33 residents who had cared for 50 dying patients to understand their experiences with the project. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, then analysed using a qualitative descriptive approach.

SETTING

21-bed medical surgical ICU in a tertiary care, university-affiliated hospital.

RESULTS

33 residents participated from internal medicine (24, 72.7%), anaesthesia (8, 24.2%) and laboratory medicine (1, 3.0%) programmes in postgraduate years 1-3. 3 categories and associated themes emerged. (1) EOL care is a challenging component of training in that (a) death in the ICU can invoke helplessness, (b) EOL education is inadequate, (c) personal connections with dying patients is difficult in the ICU and (d) EOL skills are valued by residents. (2) The project reframes the dying process for residents by (a) humanising this aspect of practice, (b) identifying that family engagement is central to the dying process, (c) increasing emotional responsiveness and (d) showing that care shifts, not stops. (3) The project offers experiential education by (a) intentional role modelling, (b) facilitating EOL dialogue, (c) empowering residents to care in a tangible way and (d) encouraging reflection.

CONCLUSIONS

For residents, the 3 Wishes Project integrated many forms of active learning for residents. Practice-based rather than classroom-based programmes may engage trainees to develop EOL skills transferable to other settings.

Personalizing death in the intensive care unit: the 3 Wishes Project: a mixed-methods study

BACKGROUND

Dying in the complex, efficiency-driven environment of the intensive care unit can be dehumanizing for the patient and have profound, long-lasting consequences for all persons attendant to that death.

OBJECTIVE

To bring peace to the final days of a patient's life and to ease the grieving process.

DESIGN

Mixed-methods study.

SETTING

21-bed medical-surgical intensive care unit.

PARTICIPANTS

Dying patients and their families and clinicians.

INTERVENTION

To honor each patient, a set of wishes was generated by patients, family members, or clinicians. The wishes were implemented before or after death by patients, families, clinicians (6 of whom were project team members), or the project team.

MEASUREMENTS

Quantitative data included demographic characteristics, processes of care, and scores on the Quality of End-of-Life Care-10 instrument. Semistructured interviews of family members and clinicians were transcribed verbatim, and qualitative description was used to analyze them.

RESULTS

Participants included 40 decedents, at least 1 family member per patient, and 3 clinicians per patient. The 159 wishes were implemented and classified into 5 categories: humanizing the environment, tributes, family reconnections, observances, and "paying it forward." Scores on the Quality of End-of-Life Care-10 instrument were high. The central theme from 160 interviews of 170 persons was how the 3 Wishes Project personalized the dying process. For patients, eliciting and customizing the wishes honored them by celebrating their lives and dignifying their deaths. For families, it created positive memories and individualized end-of-life care for their loved ones. For clinicians, it promoted interprofessional care and humanism in practice.

LIMITATION

Impaired consciousness limited understanding of patients' viewpoints.

CONCLUSION

The 3 Wishes Project facilitated personalization of the dying process through explicit integration of palliative and spiritual care into critical care practice.

PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE

Hamilton Academy of Health Science Research Organization, Canadian Intensive Care Foundation.

An evidence-based quality improvement perspective for a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease case-finding program

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a persistent progressive respiratory disease that is increasing in prevalence and cost in the United States health care system. Delays in recognition, diagnosis, and treatment are associated with poorer clinical outcomes. These delays are seen more often in populations experiencing economic hardship, lack of access to care, and lack of insurance, such as those seen in an indigent care clinic. The COPD case-finding program was planned as an evidence-based quality improvement project with a prospective, descriptive design generating a convenience sample of patients meeting modified screening criteria (i.e. patients 40 years of age with a smoking history and no pulmonary disease history) in a community-based indigent care clinic which was not screening for COPD. Practice change recommendations were guided by the Diffusion of Innovations Model. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the sample (i.e. age, ethnicity, race, gender, income, and selected comorbidities). Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, prevalence, and receiver operator characteristics curve COPD Questionnaire were calculated for this sample.

How have changes to out-of-hours primary care services since 2004 affected emergency department attendances at a UK District General Hospital? A longitudinal study

BACKGROUND

The delivery of out-of-hours primary medical care in the United Kingdom has changed substantially since 2004, and there has been little examination of the effect that this has on secondary care.

AIM

The authors aimed to quantify the change in patient type presenting to our emergency department.

METHODS

In this study, routinely collected coding data before, during and after the changes were analysed. Each September and October between 1999 and 2006 were included.

RESULTS

There was a steady increase in all attendances at our emergency department. The number and proportions of patients with non-traumatic conditions rose steadily throughout the study period. The number of patients presenting with traumatic conditions stayed the same. The number of patients presenting with non-traumatic conditions out-of-hours rose after the changes were implemented.

INTERPRETATION

The changes to the provision of out-of-hours primary care have been associated with an increase in patients with non-traumatic attendances presenting to our emergency department. This effect is most marked outside of office hours.