A Three-Step Letter Advance Directive Procedure to Facilitate Patient-Proxy Alignment in Advance Care Planning

Advance Care Planning Engagement Among Family Members of Community-Dwelling Elderly Patients With Chronic Diseases in China: A Mixed-Methods Study

In China, traditional culture advocates family consensus, and the advance care planning (ACP) engagement of family members is crucial to the implementation of ACP. However, there is still a lack of research on family members' engagement in ACP in mainland China. This study investigated the ACP engagement of family members of community-dwelling elderly patients with chronic diseases and provided evidence for further ACP intervention research. We conducted a mixed-methods sequential explanatory study, 273 family members were surveyed, and semistructured interviews were conducted. Following that, 12 family members were selected after statistical analysis to supplement the quantitative results. The results showed that the ACP engagement of family members of elderly patients with chronic diseases in the community was low, but the self-efficacy was higher. The age of family members, severity, and duration of patients' diseases were the main influencing factors for family members' ACP engagement. Traditional cultural, clinical decision-making mode, lack of understanding of ACP, and factors within the family may impede family members' engagement. This study showed that family-centered ACP practice has significant advantages in China and that future research should focus on the Chinese culture and medical system and highlight the role of families.

Intergenerational Decision Making: The Role of Family Relationships in Medical Decision Making

A symposium held at the 42nd annual Society for Medical Decision Making conference on October 26, 2020, focused on intergenerational decision making. The symposium covered existing research and clinical experiences using formal presentations and moderated discussion and was attended by 43 people. Presentations focused on the roles of pediatric patients in decision making, caregiver decision making for a child with complex medical needs, caregiver involvement in advanced care planning, and the inclusion of spillover effects in economic evaluations. The moderated discussion, summarized in this article, highlighted existing resources and gaps in intergenerational decision making in four areas: decision aids, economic evaluation, participant perspectives, and measures. Intergenerational decision making is an understudied and poorly understood aspect of medical decision making that requires particular attention as our society ages and technological advances provide new innovations for life-sustaining measures across all stages of the lifespan.

Emotional expression in conversations about advance care planning among older adult home health patients and their caregivers

OBJECTIVES

To examine patient and caregivers' differences in emotional expression and explore topics associated with emotional expression during advance care planning (ACP) discussions.

METHODS

Older adult home health patient-caregiver dyads participated in video-recorded ACP conversations as part of a collaboration-focused intervention study. Recordings were coded in Noldus Observer XT, analyzed with descriptive statistics, Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel and Breslow-Day test, and integrated with qualitative content analysis.

RESULTS

Eighteen patient-caregiver dyads were purposively recruited. Participants were mostly female (11 patients; 13 caregivers). Mean ages were 68.22 (SD = 9.64) for patients and 61.28 (SD = 13.60) for caregivers. Emotional expression (depth of emotion, positive and negative valence) was similar across patients and caregivers. Conversations centered on positive and negative decisional, relational, and existential topics.

CONCLUSIONS

This study explored emotional expression and identified topics associated with emotion for patients and caregivers during collaborative ACP. Findings suggest that collaboration in ACP can have positive relational aspects for patient-caregiver dyads, while negative emotions can also be distressing.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

This study describes the range of emotions that are common during patient and caregiver ACP discussions. Clinical implications for the assessment of caregiver support and awareness of the interdependent nature of decision making is discussed.

Evaluation of a Collaborative Advance Care Planning Intervention among Older Adult Home Health Patients and Their Caregivers

Background: Caregivers are decision stakeholders; yet, few interventions have been developed to help patients and caregivers collaborate on advance care planning (ACP). Objective: To evaluate a theory-based ACP pilot intervention, Deciding Together, to improve decisional quality, readiness, collaboration, and concordance in ACP decisions for older adult home health (HH) patients and caregivers. Design: A one-group, pre- and posttest study using matched questionnaires was conducted. The intervention consisted of a clinical vignette, theoretically guided conversation prompts, and a shared decision-making activity. Setting/Subjects:N = 36 participants (n = 18 HH patients; n = 18 family and nonfamily caregivers) were purposively recruited from a HH agency to participate in the intervention at patients' homes. Measurements: Demographic and baseline measures were collected for relationship quality, health status, and previous ACP engagement. Outcome measures included perceptions of collaboration, readiness for ACP, concordance in life-sustaining treatment preferences (cardiopulmonary resuscitation, antibiotics, artificial nutrition and hydration, and mechanical ventilation), and decisional conflict. Descriptive statistics, Cohen's κ coefficients, paired t tests, McNemar's tests, and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests (and effect size estimates, r = z/√N) were calculated using R-3.5.1 (p < 0.05). Single value imputation was used for missing values. Results: While no significant differences were found for perceptions of collaboration, and readiness for ACP, patients (r = 0.38, p = 0.02) and caregivers (r = 0.38, p = 0.02) had reduced decisional conflict at posttest. Patients' and caregivers' agreement increased by 27.7% for an item assessing patients' preference for artificial nutrition and hydration (p = 0.03). Conclusions: This study suggests that collaborative ACP decision making may improve decisional conflict for older adult HH patients and their caregivers.