Clinicians' Perspectives on Advance Care Planning for Patients With CKD in Australia: An Interview Study

Decisional needs in people with kidney failure, their relatives and health professionals about end-of-life care options: A qualitative interview study

AIM

To investigate the decisional needs in Denmark of people with kidney failure, relatives, and health professionals when planning end-of-life care.

DESIGN

A qualitative interview study.

METHODS

Individual semi-structured interviews were carried out with people with kidney failure, relatives and health professionals from November 2021 to June 2022. Malterud's systematic text condensation was used to analyse transcripts.

RESULTS

A total of 13 patients, 10 relatives, and 12 health professionals were interviewed. Overall, four concepts were agreed on: (1) Talking about end of life is difficult, (2) Patients and relatives need more knowledge and information, (3) Health professionals need more tools and training, and (4) Experiencing busyness as a barrier to conversations about end of life.

CONCLUSION

People with kidney failure, relatives, and health professionals shared certain decisional needs while also having some different decisional needs about end-of-life care. To meet these various needs, end-of-life conversations should be systematic and organized according to the patients' needs and wishes.

IMPACT

Non-systematic end-of-life care decision-making processes limit patients' involvement. Patients and relatives need more knowledge about end-of-life care, and health professionals need more competences and time to discuss decisional needs. A shared decision-making intervention for people with kidney failure when making end-of-life care decisions will be developed.

REPORTING METHOD

This empirical qualitative research is reported according to the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) checklist.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

Patients, relatives, and health professionals have been involved throughout the research process as part of the research team and advisory board. The patients are people with kidney failure and the relatives are relatives of a person with kidney failure. For this study, the advisory board has particularly contributed to the validation of the invitation letter for participation, the interview guides and the preparation of the manuscript.

Facilitators and Barriers to Receiving Palliative Care in People with Kidney Disease: Predictive Factors from an International Nursing Perspective

BACKGROUND

Palliative care (PC) focuses on relieving pain and difficult symptoms rather than treating disease or delaying its progress. Palliative care views death as a natural process and allows patients to live the last phase of their existence in the best possible way, encouraging them to express their opinions and wishes for a good death. Interventions are advocated to control symptoms and distress and promote wellbeing and social functioning. A multidisciplinary approach to support patients receiving palliative care is encouraged.

OBJECTIVE

The aims of this study were to investigate the facilitators and barriers to PC in people with kidney disease from a nursing perspective and to explore predictive factors associated with nurse-perceived facilitators and barriers to PC in people with kidney disease.

DESIGN

This study is a survey that adopted a questionnaire created in 2021 with Delphi methology, which included 73 statements divided into 37 facilitators and 36 barriers to PC in patients with kidney disease, to be scored using a Likert scale.

PARTICIPANTS AND MEASUREMENTS

Participants were obtained through the membership database of the European Dialysis and Transplant Nurses Association/European Renal Care Association (EDTNA/ERCA) of 2020. Inclusion criteria included being registered as a nurse, an EDTNA/ERCA member and understanding of the English language. The questionnaire was sent via email.

RESULTS

Three profiles of respondents were found: the first group was characterized by the highest agreement percentages of facilitators and with an average value of 53.7% in barriers; the second was characterized by a lower endorsement of facilitators and similar agreement to the first group for barriers; the third group had a high probability (>80%) of items endorsing both barriers and facilitators. Predictive variables were significantly associated with "Years in nephrology" and "macro geographic area".

CONCLUSIONS

This study demonstrates variation in PC practice across Europe. Some professionals identified fewer barriers to PC and appeared more confident when dealing with difficult situations in a patient's care pathway, while others identified more barriers as obstacles to the implementation of adequate treatment. The number of years of nephrology experience and the geographical area of origin predicted how nurses would respond. This study was not registered.

Advance care planning to patients with chronic kidney disease and their families: An intervention development study

AIM

To develop an advance care planning intervention based on the needs of patients with chronic kidney disease, families and healthcare professionals.

BACKGROUND

Patients with chronic kidney disease and their families request early advance care planning that continues throughout their illness trajectory. Healthcare professionals experience barriers to initiating advance care planning. Involvement of stakeholders in development of health interventions is important, to identify priorities, understand the problem and find solutions.

METHOD

The development was inspired by the Medical Research Council's framework, and codesign was applied. One future workshop and one design workshop were conducted with the consumers. The process was iterative, and data were analysed using the action research spiral. The Guidance for reporting intervention development studies in healthcare (GUIDED) was used.

RESULTS

Five areas were considered significant to an advance care planning intervention; a biopsychosocial approach, early palliative care, a family-focused approach, early and continuous advance care planning and a consumer-centred approach. Based on these, a conversation process with healthcare professionals was designed to give patients and families the opportunity to share values, preferences and wishes for treatment and their family and everyday life.

CONCLUSION

Codesign facilitated a collaborative process that allowed the consumers to have a significant impact on the design of an advance care planning intervention. A conversation process concerning everyday life, illness and treatment was designed for patients and families. The intervention included an advance care planning tool to guide the healthcare professionals.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

The intervention has the intention to improve the communication between healthcare professionals, patients and families. The study provides important knowledge about the significance of giving the patients and their families support in sharing their values, preferences and wishes for treatment and everyday life, thus, to improve care and treatment in their illness trajectory.

IMPACT

What problem did the study address Patients with chronic kidney disease and their families strongly request early initiation of advance care planning that continues throughout the illness trajectory. Healthcare professionals experience barriers to the initiation of the advance care planning and request a more systematic approach. What were the main findings Development of a conversation process about everyday life, illness and treatment for patients diagnosed with chronic kidney disease and families, including an advance care planning tool to guide the healthcare professionals. Where and on whom will the research have an impact The study contributes an advance care planning intervention to patients in the early stages of chronic kidney disease and their families. We believe that the intervention could be included during consultations with healthcare professionals in other stages of chronic kidney disease as well as other chronic disease.

REPORTING METHOD

To strengthen the reporting of the development of the advance care planning intervention, we used the Guidance for reporting intervention development studies in healthcare (GUIDED).

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

The development of the intervention in this study was a collaborative process between patients, families, healthcare professionals and representatives from the Danish Kidney Association, the department's user council and the research team.

Advance care planning in chronic kidney disease: A national Danish survey of knowledge and attitudes among clinicians

INTRODUCTION

Patients with chronic kidney disease and their families strongly request advance care planning. They want it to start early-before treatment decisions are made-and to be an ongoing process during their illness trajectory. Previous international studies show that health care professionals find there to be significant barriers that impact the extent of involvement in advance care planning.

AIM

To identify Danish nephrology health care professionals' knowledge and attitudes to advance care planning and the status of current advance care planning practice in Denmark.

METHOD

An anonymous, cross-sectional survey was administrated online. The questionnaire was developed in Australia and translated and culturally adapted into Danish. Health care professionals were recruited via email lists. In descriptive statistics and multiple ordinal regression, the influence of the respondents' attributes on the extent of involvement in advance care planning was explored, along with the involvement of family, and skills, comfort, barriers and facilitators in relation to advance care planning.

RESULTS

The 207 respondents comprised nephrologists (23%), other physicians (8%), nurses (62%) and other HCPs (7%), of whom 27% had participated in advance care planning training. In total, 66% indicated that they lacked access to material about advance care planning for patients with chronic kidney disease and 46% indicated that the conversations were performed ad hoc. A total of 47% reported that advance care planning was performed well at their workplace. Reported barriers were time, lack of experience and procedure. Training in advance care planning could facilitate the involvement. Nurses were less likely to feel skilled and comfortable in engaging advance care planning, while those with more than 10 years of experience were more likely to feel skilled and comfortable.

CONCLUSION

Training in advance care planning with patients with chronic kidney disease and their families on both a theoretical and clinical level is important to ensure comfort among health care professionals and to facilitate the extent of involvement. A systematic chronic kidney disease-specific approach is significant, in order to guide the conversations and ensure that advance care planning is conducted to a set standard.

Experiences and perspectives of healthcare professionals implementing advance care planning for people suffering from life-limiting illness: a systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative studies

BACKGROUND

Life-limited patients may lose decision-making abilities during disease progression. Advance care planning can be used as a discussion method for healthcare professionals to understand patients' future care preferences. However, due to many difficulties, the participation rate of healthcare professionals in advance care planning is not high.

AIM

To explore the facilitators of and barriers to healthcare professionals' provision of advance care planning to life-limited patients to better implement it for this population.

METHODS

We followed ENTREQ and PRISMA to guide this study. We conducted a systematic search of PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, CNKI, and SinoMed to include qualitative data on the experiences and perspectives of healthcare professionals in different professional fields in providing advance care planning for life-limited patients. The Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklist for Qualitative Research was used to assess the quality of the included studies.

RESULTS

A total of 11 studies were included. Two themes were identified: unsupported conditions and facilitative actions. Healthcare professionals regarded cultural concepts, limited time, and fragmented record services as obstacles to implementation. They had low confidence and were overly concerned about negative effects. They needed to possess multiple abilities, learn to flexibly initiate topics, and facilitate effective communication based on multidisciplinary collaboration.

CONCLUSION

Healthcare professionals need an accepting cultural environment to implement advance care planning, a sound legal system, financial support, and a coordinated and shared system to support them. Healthcare systems need to develop educational training programs to increase the knowledge and skills of healthcare professionals and to promote multidisciplinary collaboration to facilitate effective communication. Future research should compare the differences in the needs of healthcare professionals in different cultures when implementing advance care planning to develop systematic implementation guidelines in different cultures.

Barriers to conservative care from patients' and nephrologists' perspectives: the CKD-REIN study

BACKGROUND

Conservative care is increasingly considered an alternative to kidney replacement therapy for kidney failure management, mostly among the elderly. We investigated its status and the barriers to its implementation from patients' and providers' perspectives.

METHODS

We analysed data from 1204 patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) [estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) <30 mL/min/1.73 m2] enrolled at 40 nationally representative nephrology clinics (2013-16) who completed a self-administered questionnaire about the information they received and their preferred treatment option, including conservative care, if their kidneys failed. Nephrologists (n = 137) also reported data about their clinics' resources and practices regarding conservative care.

RESULTS

All participating facilities reported they were routinely able to offer conservative care, but only 37% had written protocols and only 5% had a person or team primarily responsible for it. Overall, 6% of patients were estimated to use conservative care. Among nephrologists, 82% reported they were fairly or extremely comfortable discussing conservative care, but only 28% usually or always offered this option for older (>75 years) patients approaching kidney failure. They used various terminology for this care, with conservative management and non-dialysis care mentioned most often. Among patients, 5% of those >75 years reported receiving information about this option and 2% preferring it.

CONCLUSIONS

Although reported by nephrologists to be widely available and easily discussed, conservative care is only occasionally offered to older patients, most of whom report they were not informed of this option. The lack of a person or team responsible for conservative care and unclear information appear to be key barriers to its implementation.

Patients' with chronic kidney disease and their relatives' perspectives on advance care planning: A meta-ethnography

INTRODUCTION

Advance care planning is a process that supports adults of any age and stage of illness in understanding and sharing their values, life goals, and preferences regarding medical care. Chronic kidney disease is a progressive and lifelong disease. Close relatives often represent patients' most important support. Advance care planning is recommended to be a continuous part of a person's ongoing treatment and is not solely related to end-of-life care. However, no studies have focused on advanced care planning for patients with chronic kidney disease earlier than the onset of a terminal illness.

AIM

The aim is to describe experiences of and perspectives on advance care planning among patients with chronic kidney disease and their close relatives.

METHODS

We conducted a meta-ethnography of studies that used individual, dyad, and focus group interviews. We searched five electronic databases: PubMed, Cinahl, Embase, PsycINFO, and Scopus and reference lists of relevant articles.

RESULTS

Seven articles were included. Participants had a need for advance care planning to make shared decisions about treatment and everyday life. The responsibility for initiating advance care planning lay with the healthcare professionals. Differences between advance care planning goals among patients, relatives, and healthcare professionals complicated the advance care planning process. A focus on day-to-day care at the expense of focusing on advance care planning gave an impression of a lack of competencies and interest. For some patients, the involvement of relatives was of significant value; however, it could be associated with burden and pressure.

CONCLUSION

Patients with chronic kidney disease and their families have a need for early advance care planning before dialysis or transplantation is initiated, so as to facilitate shared decision-making related to treatment options and everyday life. It is important that patients, their relatives, and healthcare professionals share the same advance care planning goals, to get sufficient discussions and thus, achieve clarity about prognosis, medical care, and the illness trajectory.

Exploring the Barriers Faced by Nephrology Nurses in Initiating Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease Into Advance Care Planning Using Focus-Group Interviews

BACKGROUND

The prevalence of end-stage renal disease in Taiwan is the highest in the world. The rate of signing advance directives in Taiwan is lower than in Western countries, and most of the barriers that have been identified relate to initiating advance care planning (ACP).

PURPOSE

This study was designed to explore the barriers to discussing ACP with patients with chronic kidney disease faced by nephrology nurses.

METHODS

A descriptive qualitative study design was adopted. The Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research was used to report the findings of this study. Data were collected using purposive sampling. A total of 34 nephrology nurses were recruited from hospitals in northern (2 groups, 10 participants), central (1 group, 4 participants), and southern (5 groups, 20 participants) Taiwan. A qualitative content analysis was conducted to analyze the transcripts of the eight focus groups.

RESULTS

Five themes were identified, including (a) lacking the confidence to discuss ACP, (b) difficulty in finding an appropriate opportunity to initiate ACP discussion, (c) personally lacking the characteristics to discuss ACP, (d) conflicting perspectives between doctors and nurses over ACP, and (e) culture and belief-based barriers to discussing ACP.

CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

The findings obtained from the interviews revealed that nurses must enhance their ACP-related knowledge and communication skills and foster personal confidence in initiating ACP discussions. Furthermore, nurses must be empowered to work with other healthcare professionals. To implement the initial process of discussing ACP in clinical settings, clinical guidelines should be developed for healthcare professionals on initiating ACP. These measures may facilitate improved collaboration in healthcare settings and further encourage patients and their families to participate in shared decision-making that may help patients complete advance directives and thereby achieve better care quality at the end of life.

Nurse-perceived facilitators and barriers to palliative care in patients with kidney disease: A European Delphi survey

Background

The palliative care phenomenon is increasingly invested in all medicine and nursing fields, as care for people with kidney disease who do not wish to embark on dialysis: it encompasses a palliative approach to shared decision‐making. To deliver patient‐centred optimal care, nephrology healthcare staff should be knowledgeable about palliative care and the appropriate conservative management approach.

Objective

This paper aimed to explore, using a Delphi survey, the barriers and facilitators to palliative care in patients with kidney disease.

Design

An e‐Delphi technique with three questionnaire rounds was performed; statements were generated using Likert scales.

Participants and Measurements

A list of 80 statements related to palliative care in patients with kidney disease was divided into facilitators and barriers. Questionnaires were administered to 13 nephrology nurse experts in some European countries.

Results

Seven items were removed from the list of 80 statements after the first round of the Delphi study; eight items achieved a significant change of the mean between round two and three, whereas internal stability emerged in all the remaining items.

Conclusions

Specific training and education in palliative care emerged as a facilitator, as well as the role of spiritual and beliefs and the role of family and caregiver. The main barriers were represented by the differences in cultures, beliefs, and practices and by the lack of experience in the role of the staff in palliative care. These statements provide a platform for future research to improve palliative care practice in patients with kidney disease.

Barriers and Facilitators to Discussing Goals of Care among Nephrology Trainees: A Qualitative Analysis and Novel Educational Intervention

Background: Goals of care (GOC) conversations are critical to advance care planning but occur infrequently in nephrology. National workshops have improved trainee comfort with initiating GOC conversations but lack interface with palliative subspecialists and can incur travel-related costs. We developed an educational intervention focused on GOC conversations for nephrology trainees that incorporated into routine schedules and offered feedback from palliative subspecialists. Objective: To explore barriers and facilitators to discussing GOC and uncover perceptions of GOC-related behavior change post-intervention. Design: Qualitative study. Setting/Subjects: Sixteen nephrology trainees at an academic medical center. Measurements: Analyses of semistructured interviews occurred in phases: (1) isolation of quotes; (2) development of a coding system; and (3) creation of a framework of interrelationships between quotes using an inductive/deductive approach. Results: We captured the following themes: (1) prior knowledge (ability to define GOC, knowledge of communication frameworks and prognostic data, exposure to outpatient GOC conversations; (2) attitudes related to GOC conversations (responsibility, comfort, therapeutic alliance, patient preparedness, partnership with care teams); and (3) potential change in behaviors (increased likelihood to initiate GOC conversations early, more accurate identification of patients appropriate for a GOC conversation). Conclusions: Prior knowledge of, exposure to, and attitudes toward advance care planning were key determinants of a nephrology trainees' ability to initiate timely GOC conversations. After our intervention, trainees reported increased comfort with and likelihood to initiate GOC conversations and an improved ability to identify appropriate candidates. Our intervention may be a novel, feasible way to coach nephrologists to initiate timely GOC conversations.

Are We Making Progress on Communication with People Who Are Near the End of Life in the Australian Health System? A Thematic Analysis

Initiating end-of-life (EoL) discussions with patients is often delayed or avoided altogether by healthcare practitioners even in light of imminent death. This continues despite the availability of guidelines and conceptual frameworks on how to communicate prognoses at EoL. We surveyed healthcare practitioners to elicit their exposure to and confidence in EoL discussions and to better understand factors that enable or challenge the initiation of discussions in Australian healthcare settings. Thematic analysis identified that EoL discussions could be emotionally burdensome for healthcare practitioners but were regarded as valuable. Effective communications were challenged by conflict with families and between healthcare practitioners as to appropriate care goal transition, and by prognostic uncertainty. Communication skills appeared to be developed more from experience, and beneficial strategies such as role play and mentoring particularly for younger nurses and doctors were identified. Specific training in EoL communications should target undergraduates and new healthcare practitioners.

Illness as Transformative Experience: Implications of Philosophy for Advance Care Planning

Advance care planning has been shown to improve patient outcomes and is recommended as part of routine care for people with a life-limiting illness. Nevertheless, developing an advance care plan can be complex and challenging for both patients and family members, and the clinicians who support them. One complexity is that illness and its treatments often cannot be deeply understood without lived experience. In this paper, we explore this idea, highlighting how lived experience can bring about unpredictable changes in an individual's values and preferences. We examine the implications of such "transformative experiences" for advance care planning, using the hypothetical case study of Jean, an older person with advanced kidney disease. Finally, we consider consequences for clinical practice and how an understanding of transformative experience might enhance current approaches to advance care planning.

Doctors' perspectives on adhering to advance care directives when making medical decisions for patients: an Australian interview study

OBJECTIVE

Advance care planning (ACP) assists people to identify their goals, values and treatment preferences for future care. Ideally, preferences are documented in an advance care directive (ACD) and used by doctors to guide medical decision-making should the patient subsequently lose their decision-making capacity. However, studies demonstrate that ACDs are not always adhered to by doctors in clinical practice. We aim to describe the attitudes and perspectives of doctors regarding ACD adherence and the utility of ACDs in clinical practice.

DESIGN

Face-to-face semistructured interviews were conducted using three case-based vignettes to explore doctors' decision-making and attitudes towards ACDs. Transcripts were analysed using a thematic analysis.

SETTING

Doctors from a variety of medical specialties and with varying experience levels were recruited from a large tertiary hospital in Melbourne, Australia.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 21 doctors were interviewed, 48% female (10/21). Most (19/21) reported having experience using ACDs.

RESULTS

Four themes were identified: aligning with patient preferences (avoiding unwanted care, prioritising autonomy and anticipating family opposition), advocating best interests (defining futile care, relying on clinical judgement, rejecting unreasonable decisions and disregarding legal consequences), establishing validity (doubting rigour of the decision-making process, questioning patients' ability to understand treatment decisions, distrusting outdated preferences and seeking confirmation) and translating written preferences into practice (contextualising patient preferences, applying subjective terminology and prioritising emergency medical treatment).

CONCLUSIONS

ACDs provide doctors with opportunities to align patient preferences with treatment and uphold patient autonomy. However, doctors experience decisional conflict when attempting to adhere to ACDs in practice, especially when they believe that adhering to the ACD is not in the patients' best interests, or if they doubt the validity of the ACD. Future ACP programmes should consider approaches to improve the validity and applicability of ACDs. In addition, there is a need for ethical and legal education to support doctors' knowledge and confidence in ACP and enacting ACDs.

Volunteer Involvement in Advance Care Planning: A Scoping Review

CONTEXT

Volunteer involvement may support organizations to initiate and operationalize complex interventions such as advance care planning (ACP).

OBJECTIVES

A scoping review was conducted to map existing research on volunteer involvement in ACP and to identify gaps in current knowledge base.

METHODS

We followed the PRISMA extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines. The review included studies of any design reporting original research. ACP was defined as any intervention aimed at supporting people to consider and communicate their current and future health treatment goals in the context of their own preferences and values. Studies were included if they reported data relating to volunteers at any stage in the delivery of ACP.

RESULTS

Of 11 studies identified, nine different ACP models (initiatives to improve uptake of ACP) were described. Most of the models involved volunteers facilitating ACP conversations or advance care directive completion (n = 6); and three focused on ACP education, training, and support. However, a framework for volunteer involvement in ACP was not described; the studies often provided limited detail of the scope of volunteers' roles in ACP, and in three of the models, volunteers delivered ACP initiatives in addition to undertaking other tasks, in their primary role as a volunteer navigator. Increased frequency of ACP conversation or documentation was most commonly used to evaluate the effectiveness of the studies, with most showing a trend toward improvement.

CONCLUSIONS

Current literature on volunteer involvement in ACP is lacking a systematic approach to implementation. We suggest future research should focus on person-centered outcomes related to ACP to evaluate the effectiveness of volunteer involvement.

A Conceptual Framework of Palliative Care across the Continuum of Advanced Kidney Disease

Kidney palliative care is a growing discipline within nephrology. Kidney palliative care specifically addresses the stress and burden of advanced kidney disease through the provision of expert symptom management, caregiver support, and advance care planning with the goal of optimizing quality of life for patients and families. The integration of palliative care principles is necessary to address the multidimensional impact of advanced kidney disease on patients. In particular, patients with advanced kidney disease have a high symptom burden and experience greater intensity of care at the end of life compared with other chronic serious illnesses. Currently, access to kidney palliative care is lacking, whether delivered by trained kidney care professionals or by palliative care clinicians. These barriers include a gap in training and workforce, policies limiting access to hospice and outpatient palliative care services for patients with ESKD, resistance to integrating palliative care within the nephrology community, and the misconception that palliative care is synonymous with end-of-life care. As such, addressing kidney palliative care needs on a population level will require not only access to specialized kidney palliative care initiatives, but also equipping kidney care professionals with the skills to address basic kidney palliative care needs. This article will address the role of kidney palliative care for patients with advanced kidney disease, describe models of care including primary and specialty kidney palliative care, and outline strategies to improve kidney palliative care on a provider and system level.

Hemodialysis as a life-sustaining treatment at the end of life

The Act on Decisions on Life-Sustaining Treatment for Patients in Hospice and Palliative Care or at the End of Life came into effect on February 4th, 2018, in South Korea. Based on the Act, all Koreans over the age of 19 years can decide whether to refuse life-sustaining treatments at the end of life via advance directive or physician orders. Hemodialysis is one of the options designated in the Act as a life-sustaining treatment that can be withheld or withdrawn near death. However, hemodialysis has unique features. So, it is not easy to determine the best candidates for withholding/withdrawing hemodialysis at the end of life. Thus, it is necessary to investigate the meaning and implications of hemodialysis at the end of life with ethical consideration of futility and withholding or withdrawal of intervention.

Management of Nursing Home Residents Following Acute Hospitalization: Efficacy of the "Regular Early Assessment Post-Discharge (REAP)" Intervention

OBJECTIVES

Rehospitalization of nursing home (NH) residents is frequent, costly, potentially avoidable and associated with diminished quality of life and poor survival. This study aims to evaluate the impact and cost-effectiveness of the Regular Early Assessment Post-Discharge (REAP) protocol of coordinated specialist geriatrician and nurse practitioner visits on rates of rehospitalization, hospital length of stay, and emergency department presentations for NH residents recently discharged from hospital.

DESIGN

Prospective randomized controlled study of recently hospitalized NH residents.

SETTING

Twenty-one of 24 eligible NHs within the geographical catchment area of St George Hospital, a 650-bed university hospital in Sydney, Australia.

PARTICIPANTS

NH residents from eligible facilities admitted to St George Hospital's geriatric service were enrolled prior to hospital discharge.

INTERVENTION

REAP intervention of monthly coordinated specialist geriatrician and nurse practitioner assessments within participants' NHs for 6 months following hospital discharge.

MEASUREMENTS

Impact of the REAP intervention on hospital readmissions, hospital inpatient days, emergency department utilization, general practitioner visits, investigations and associated costs during the study intervention period.

RESULTS

Forty-three NH residents were randomly allocated to REAP intervention (n = 22) or control (n = 21) groups. The REAP intervention group had almost two-thirds fewer hospital readmissions (P = .03; Cohen's d = 0.73) and half as many emergency department visits than controls. Total costs were 50% lower in the REAP intervention group, with lower total hospital inpatient (P = .04; Cohen's d = 0.63) and total emergency department (P = .04; Cohen's d = 0.65) costs.

CONCLUSION

Cost-effective reductions in the utilization of hospital-related services were demonstrated following implementation of the REAP intervention for NH residents recently discharged from hospital.

An Interview Study of Patient and Caregiver Perspectives on Advance Care Planning in ESRD

BACKGROUND

Advance care planning (ACP) empowers patients to consider and communicate their current and future treatment goals. However, it can be an emotionally charged process for patients with kidney disease and their caregivers. This study aimed to describe the perspectives and attitudes of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and their caregivers toward ACP.

STUDY DESIGN

Qualitative study.

SETTING & PARTICIPANTS

Patients with ESRD (n=24) and their caregivers (n=15) aged 36 to 91 years at various stages of ACP ("not commenced," "in progress," or "completed") from 3 renal services.

METHODOLOGY

Semistructured interviews.

ANALYTICAL APPROACH

Transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis.

RESULTS

5 major themes were identified: articulating core values (avoiding futile and undignified treatment, reevaluating terms of dialysis, framing a life worth living, and refusing to be a burden), confronting conversations (signifying death and defeat, accepting inevitable death, and alleviating existential tension), negotiating mutual understanding (broaching taboos and assisting conflicted caregivers), challenging patient autonomy (family pressures to continue dialysis, grief diminishing caregivers' capacity, and leveraging support), and decisional disempowerment (lacking medical transparency and disappointment with clinical disinterest).

LIMITATIONS

Only English-speaking patients/caregivers participated in the interview.

CONCLUSIONS

ACP provides patients with ESRD and their caregivers a conduit for accepting and planning for impending death and to express treatment preferences based on self-dignity and value of living. However, ACP can be considered taboo, may require caregivers to overcome personal and decisional conflict, and may be complex if patients and caregivers are unable to accept the reality of the patient's illness. We suggest that ACP facilitators and clinicians make ACP more acceptable and less confrontational to patients and caregivers and that strategies be put in place to support caregivers who may be experiencing overwhelming grief or who have conflicting goals, particularly when they are called on to make end-of-life decisions.