Abstract
Purpose: Advance Care Planning (ACP) is a crucial end-of-Life Care practice. However, an ACP educational program for care staff in an acute care setting has not yet been established.
The present study aimed to examine the effects of an ACP educational program in this clinical context.
Method: The design was a single-arm study to evaluate staff attitudes pre-and post-program. A 90-minute intervention program was attended three times, along with self-directed study. The study outcomes included attitudes towards Advance Directrives (AD), the Death Attitude Inventory (DAI), and the Frommelt Attitude Toward Care of Dying scale (FATCOD-Form B-J).
Result: A total of 57 care staff participated in the entire program (average age was 44.6 years old (SD 7.8); 11 men). The most common occupationai description was nurse (n=37). The scores on the attitudes towards AD scale increased from 9.96 (SD 1.0) to 10.3 (SD 0.9), which reached statistical significance (P=0.03). The score for ‘death relief’ in the DAI increased from 13.9 (SD 0.9) to 15.3 (SD 5.9), also P=0.03. The score for ‘positive attitude for end of life care’ in the FATCOD-Form B-J scale increased from 9.0 (SD 1.6) to 9.8 (SD 2.0), with P=0.01.
Conclusion: These results suggest that the present ACP educational program was effective at improving staff attitudes relating to three key domains: attitudes towards AD, death, and the care of terminally ill patients.