Refinement of an Emergency Department-Based, Advance Care Planning Intervention for Nurses.

Background: Most older adults visit the emergency department (ED) near the end of life without advance care planning (ACP) and thus are at risk of receiving care that does not align with their wishes and values. ED GOAL is a behavioral intervention administered by ED clinicians, which is designed to engage seriously ill older adults in serious illness conversations in the ED. Seriously ill older adults found it acceptable in the ED. However, its potential to be used by nurses remains unclear. Objective: The aim of this study is to identify refinements to adapt an ED-based ACP intervention by eliciting the perspectives of nurses. Design: This is a qualitative study using semistructured interviews. Data were analyzed using axial coding methods. Setting/Subjects: We recruited a purposeful sample of ED nurses in one urban academic ED and one urban community ED in the northeastern region of the United States. Results: Twenty-five nurses were interviewed (mean age 46 years, 84% female, and mean clinical experience of 16 years). Emerging themes were identified within six domains: (1) nurses' prior experience with serious illness conversations, (2) overall impression of ED GOAL, (3) refinements to ED GOAL, (4) implementation of ED GOAL by ED nurses, (5) specially trained nursing model, and (6) use of telehealth with ED GOAL. Conclusions: ED nurses were generally supportive of using ED GOAL and provided insight into how to best adapt and implement it in their clinical practice. Empirical evidence for adapting ED GOAL to the nursing practice remains to be seen.

Nurses' Perceptions of Facilitating Advance Care Planning Conversations in the Emergency Department.

Background: Nurses are well positioned to initiate advance care planning (ACP) conversations because of their unique strength in communication and central patient-facing role in the interdisciplinary team. Nurse-led ACP conversations have demonstrated promising results in settings outside of the emergency department (ED). Understanding ED nurses' perspectives regarding ACP conversations is needed before implementing similar practices in the ED. Objective: To explore ED nurses' perception of facilitating ACP conversations. Design: We conducted a cross-sectional survey to assess ED nurses' perceptions of facilitating ACP conversations in the ED. Setting: ED nurses at one academic hospital and one community hospital located within the northeastern region of the United States. Results: Seventy-seven (53.1%) out of 145 eligible ED nurses completed the survey. All participants perceived ACP conversations in the ED as at least somewhat important. Forty (51.9%) felt somewhat comfortable in facilitating these conversations. The majority of participants (77.9%) agreed that a specially trained nurse consultation model might be helpful in the ED. We found a correlation between total clinical experience and interest in facilitating ACP conversations in the ED (p = 0.045). Conclusion: ED nurses are well positioned to help patients clarify their goals-of-care and end-of-life care preferences. They perceived ACP conversations to be important and felt comfortable to facilitate them in the ED. Additional studies are needed to empirically test its implementation.