Baseline Knowledge Attitudes Satisfaction and Aspirations With Advance Care Planning: A Cross-Sectional Study

Author(s):  
Jojo Yorke ◽  
Emmanuel Yobo-Addo ◽  
Kanwardeep Singh ◽  
Ali Muzzam ◽  
Imran Khan ◽  
...  

Background: Studies have consistently demonstrated low rates of adoption of Advance Care Planning in the community. Methods: We studied Medicare enrollees age 65 and over and non-Medicare patients using a cross-sectional survey undertaken in February and March 2019 using questionnaires completed by out-patients attending a teaching hospital clinic in East Tennessee USA. We evaluated patient knowledge, attitudes, satisfaction and aspirations towards Advance Care Planning. Results: 141 properly completed questionnaires were used. All Medicare enrollees were aware of Advanced Care Planning compared to 43% in the non-Medicare group. 70% of the Medicare enrollees and 94% of non-Medicare group were not ready to complete a written Advanced Care Plan. Of the respondents, 46% had appointed spouses, 24% adult children, 11% siblings, 10% parents, 3.6% friends and 1.2% aunts as their surrogate medical decision makers. 41% agreed that they were satisfied with their current advance care planning arrangements. This research identified that individual’s knowledge, attitudes and aspirations influenced the adoption of Advance Care. Conclusions: Patients have adopted the Advance Care Plan concept but have modified it to reduce their concerns by using family and loved ones to convey their wishes instead of filling the required legal documents. Clinicians could improve this informal system and increase the observability of the treatment choices including the use of video and web-based tools.

Author(s):  
Nola M. Ries ◽  
Maureen Douglas ◽  
Jessica Simon ◽  
Konrad Fassbender

Advance care planning (ACP) is the process of thinking about, discussing and documenting one’s preferences for future health care. ACP has important benefits: people who have a written directive are more likely to receive care that accords with their preferences, have fewer hospitalizations, and die in their preferred location. This article focuses on the important role that legal professionals have in advising and assisting clients with ACP. Studies report that people who have a written advance care plan are more likely to have received assistance in preparing the document from a lawyer than from a doctor. Yet virtually no research engages with the legal profession to understand lawyers’ attitudes, beliefs, and practices in this important area. This article starts to fill this gap by reporting the findings of a survey of lawyers in the province of Alberta. The results reveal lawyers’ practices in relation to ACP, their perceptions of their professional role and factors that support or hinder lawyers in working with clients on ACP, and their preferences for resources to assist them in helping their clients. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first survey of lawyers on their practices in relation to ACP.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 402-408
Author(s):  
Jill M. Steiner ◽  
Erwin N. Oechslin ◽  
Gruschen Veldtman ◽  
Craig S. Broberg ◽  
Karen Stout ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTBackground:Advance care planning and palliative care are gaining recognition as critical care components for adults with CHD, yet these often do not occur. Study objectives were to evaluate ACHD providers’ 1) comfort managing patients’ physical symptoms and psychosocial needs and 2) perspectives on the decision/timing of advance care planning initiation and palliative care referral.Methods:Cross-sectional study of ACHD providers. Six hypothetical patients were described in case format, followed by questions regarding provider comfort managing symptoms, initiating advance care planning, and palliative care referral.Results:Fifty providers (72% physicians) completed surveys. Participants reported low levels of personal palliative care knowledge, without variation by gender, years in practice, or prior palliative care training. Providers appeared more comfortable managing physical symptoms and discussing prognosis than addressing psychosocial needs. Providers recognised advance directives as important, although the percentage who would initiate advance care planning ranged from 18 to 67% and referral to palliative care from 14 to 32%. Barriers and facilitators to discussing advance care planning with patients were identified. Over 20% indicated that advance care planning and end-of-life discussions are best initiated with the development of at least one life-threatening complication/hospitalisation.Conclusions:Providers noted high value in advance directives yet were themselves less likely to initiate advance care planning or refer to palliative care. This raises the critical questions of when, how, and by whom discussion of these important matters should be initiated and how best to support ACHD providers in these endeavours.


2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (26_suppl) ◽  
pp. 16-16
Author(s):  
Aaron Kee Yee Wong

16 Background: Advance care planning (ACP) is fundamental in quality palliative care. There is no data detailing the demand for ACP discussions in hospitals, nor any standard objective criteria to decide urgency of such discussions. This cross-sectional study addresses this by comparing the ability of two commonly used instruments to detect palliative patients, and to predict death in the current admission. Methods: All inpatients were censored from the largest tertiary hospital in the state on a single inpatient day. 475 patients were followed for 3 months or until discharge or death, whichever earlier. Quan-modified Charlson score (QCS) and the Palliative Prognostic Score (PaP) was identified for each patient. These instruments were chosen based on external validity and ease of scoring. Results: See Table. 134 patients were identified as palliative (using Gold Standards Framework Indicators). 40 patients died. Both instruments were highly specific in detecting palliative patients and deaths but not sensitive, meaning they predicted patients who were palliative or died that admission. PaP>5.6 was most sensitive test to detect death in current admission. Conclusions: Despite poor sensitivity, the most sensitive instrument (QCS) detected many patients requiring ACP discussion on a single day in hospital, highlighting the demand for ACP-trained staff. Secondly, streamlined usage of these instruments may assist in prioritising resource allocation. The QCS could identify patients needing ACP discussions (despite poor sensitivity, still identified many patients), whereas the PaP > 5.6 could refine the prioritisation of such discussions. This strategy could assist in reaching as many patients as possible using current staffing levels. [Table: see text]


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Yue-lai Chan ◽  
Annie Oi-ling Kwok ◽  
Kwok-keung Yuen ◽  
Derrick Kit-sing Au ◽  
Jacqueline Kwan-yuk Yuen

Abstract Background: Training has been found effective in improving healthcare professionals’ knowledge, confidence, and skills in conducting advance care planning (ACP). However, its association with their attitudes toward ACP, which is crucial to its implementation, remained unclear. To fill this gap, this paper examines the association between their attitudes toward ACP and relevant training experiences.Methods: An online survey about attitudes toward ACP of healthcare professionals, including physicians, nurses, social workers, and allied healthcare professionals, currently working in hospital and community care in Hong Kong was conducted.Results: Of 250 respondents, approximately half (51.6%) had received ACP-related training. Those with relevant training reported significantly more positive in the perceived clinical relevance, willingness, and confidence in conducting ACP and levels of agreement with 19 out of the 25 statements in a questionnaire about attitudes toward ACP than those without (ps ≤ 0.001–0.05). Respondents who received training only in a didactic format reported a significantly lower level of confidence in conducting ACP than did others who received a blended mode of learning (p = 0.012). Notwithstanding significant differences between respondents with and without relevant training, respondents generally acknowledged their roles in initiating conversations and appreciated ACP in preventing decisional conflict in surrogate decision-making regardless of their training experience.Conclusions: This paper revealed the association between training and positive attitudes toward ACP among healthcare professionals. The findings showed that training is a predictor of their preparedness for ACP in terms of perceived relevancy, willingness, and confidence. Those who had received training were less likely to consider commonly reported barriers such as time constraints, cultural taboos, and avoidance among patients and family members as hindrances to ACP implementation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (9) ◽  
pp. 4211-4217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariken E. Stegmann ◽  
Olaf P. Geerse ◽  
Dorien Tange ◽  
Carol Richel ◽  
Linda Brom ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 76
Author(s):  
Elise Mansfield ◽  
Sarah Jeong ◽  
Amy Waller ◽  
Sally Chan

This study aimed to examine the prevalence and perceived barriers to uptake of advance care planning (ACP), including appointment of an enduring guardian (EG) and completion of an advance care directive (ACD) among Australian adults attending hospital outpatient clinics. Sociodemographic correlates of not completing ACP were also assessed. A cross-sectional survey exploring the uptake of ACP was conducted with outpatients and their accompanying persons aged >18 years (n=191) at one regional hospital in New South Wales, Australia. Rates of completion of an ACD and appointment of an EG were 20% (n=37) and 35% (n=67) respectively. The most common reason for non-completion of an ACD and not appointing an EG was: ‘didn’t think I needed this’. Younger age was associated with not having appointed an EG (OR 3.8, 95% CI 1.2–12.1, P=0.02). No sociodemographic characteristics were significantly associated with non-completion of ACDs. Uptake of ACP is suboptimal among outpatients. Community-based healthcare providers are well positioned to promote ACP with outpatients.


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