Learning needs and perceived barriers and facilitators to end-of-life care: a survey of front-line nurses on acute medical wards.

OBJECTIVES: Caring for dying hospitalised patients is a healthcare priority. Our objective was to understand the learning needs of front-line nurses on the general internal medicine (GIM) hospital wards, and perceived barriers to, and facilitators of, optimal end-of-life care. METHODS: We developed an 85-item survey informed by the Theoretical Domains Framework and Capability-Opportunity-Motivation-Behaviour system. We included demographics and two main domains (knowledge and practice; delivering end-of-life care) with seven subsections. Nurses from four GIM wards and the nursing resource team completed this survey. We analysed and compared results overall, by Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation, and by survey domain. We considered items with median scores <4/7 barriers. We conducted an a priori subgroup analysis based on duration of practice (≤5 and >5 years). RESULTS: Our response rate was 60.5% (144/238). 51% had been practising for >5 years; most respondents were female (93.1%). Nurses had similar scores on the knowledge (mean 76.0%; SD 11.6%) and delivering care (mean 74.5% (8.6%)) domains. Scores for items associated with Capability were higher than those associated with Opportunity (median (first, third quartiles) 78.6% (67.9%, 87.5%) vs 73.9% (66.0%, 81.8%); p=0.04). Nurses practising >5 years had significantly higher scores on all analyses. Barriers included engaging with families having strong emotional reactions, managing goals of care conflicts between patients and families, and staffing challenges on the ward. Additional requested resources included formal training, information binders and more staff. Opportunities for consideration include formalised on-the-job training, access to comprehensive information, including symptom management at the end of life, and debriefing sessions. CONCLUSIONS: Front-line nurses reported an interest in learning more about end-of-life care and identified important barriers that are feasible to address. These results will inform specific knowledge translation strategies to build capacity among bedside nurses to enhance end-of-life care practices for dying patients on GIM wards.

Enhancing end of life care on general internal medical wards: the 3 Wishes Project.

BACKGROUND: Initially developed in the intensive care unit (ICU) at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton (SJHH) the 3 Wishes Project (3WP) provides personalized, compassionate care to dying patients and their families. The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate 3WP expansion strategies for patients cared for on General Internal Medicine (GIM) wards in our hospital. METHODS: From January 2020-November 2021, we developed a phased, multicomponent approach for program expansion. We enrolled patients on the GIM wards who had a high probability of dying in hospital, then elicited, implemented, and documented wishes for them or their families. Data were analyzed descriptively. RESULTS: From March 2020 to November 2020, we implemented staff education and engagement activities, created an Expansion Coordinator position, held strategic consultations, and offered enabling resources. From March 2020 to November 2021, we enrolled 62 patients and elicited 281 wishes (median [1st, 3rd quartiles] 4 [4, 5] wishes/patient). The most common wish categories were personalizing the environment (67 wishes, 24%), rituals and spiritual support (42 wishes, 15%), and facilitating connections (39 wishes, 14%). The median [1st, 3rd] cost/patient was $0 [0, $10.00] (range $0 to $86); 91% of wishes incurred no cost to the program. CONCLUSIONS: The formal expansion of the 3WP on GIM wards has been successful despite COVID-19 pandemic disruptions. While there is still work ahead, these data suggest that implementing the 3WP on the GIM wards is feasible and affordable. Increased engagement of the clinical team during the pandemic suggests that it is positively received.

Use of Video Technology in End-of-Life Care for Hospitalized Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Infection control protocols, including visitor restrictions, implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic threatened the ability to provide compassionate, family-centered care to patients dying in the hospital. In response, clinicians used videoconferencing technology to facilitate conversations between patients and their families. OBJECTIVES: To understand clinicians' perspectives on using videoconferencing technology to adapt to pandemic policies when caring for dying patients. METHODS: A qualitative descriptive study was conducted with 45 clinicians who provided end-of-life care to patients in 3 acute care units at an academically affiliated urban hospital in Canada during the first wave of the pandemic (March 2020-July 2020). A 3-step approach to conventional content analysis was used to code interview transcripts and construct overarching themes. RESULTS: Clinicians used videoconferencing technology to try to bridge gaps in end-of-life care by facilitating connections with family. Many benefits ensued, but there were also some drawbacks. Despite the opportunity for connection offered by virtual visits, participants noted concerns about equitable access to videoconferencing technology and authenticity of technology-assisted interactions. Participants also offered recommendations for future use of videoconferencing technology both during and beyond the pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: Clinician experiences can be used to inform policies and practices for using videoconferencing technology to provide high-quality end-of-life care in the future, including during public health crises.

Sacrifice and solidarity: a qualitative study of family experiences of death and bereavement in critical care settings during the pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Pandemic-related restrictions are expected to continue to shape end-of-life care and impact the experiences of dying hospitalised patients and their families. OBJECTIVE: To understand families' experiences of loss and bereavement during and after the death of their loved one amidst the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic. DESIGN: Qualitative descriptive study. SETTING: Three acute care units in a Canadian tertiary care hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Family members of 28 hospitalised patients who died from March-July 2020. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Qualitative semistructured interviews conducted 6-16 months after patient death inquired about family experiences before and beyond the death of their loved one and garnered suggestions to improve end-of-life care. RESULTS: Pandemic restrictions had consequences for families of dying hospitalised patients. Most family members described an attitude of acquiescence, some framing their experience as a sacrifice made for the public good. Families appreciated how clinicians engendered trust in the name of social solidarity while trying to mitigate the negative impact of family separation. However, fears about the patient's experience of isolation and changes to postmortem rituals also created despair and contributed to long-lasting grief. CONCLUSION: Profound loss and enduring grief were described by family members whose final connections to their loved one were constrained by pandemic circumstances. Families observed solidarity among clinical staff and experienced a sense of unity with staff, which alleviated some distress. Their suggestions to improve end-of-life care given pandemic restrictions included frequent, flexible communication, exceptions for family presence when safe, and targeted efforts to connect patients whose isolation is intensified by functional impairment or limited technological access. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT04602520; Results.

Scale-up and sustainability of a personalized end-of-life care intervention: a longitudinal mixed-methods study.

BACKGROUND: Scaling-up and sustaining healthcare interventions can be challenging. Our objective was to describe how the 3 Wishes Project (3WP), a personalized end-of-life intervention, was scaled-up and sustained in an intensive care unit (ICU). METHODS: In a longitudinal mixed-methods study from January 12,013 - December 31, 2018, dying patients and families were invited to participate if the probability of patient death was > 95% or after a decision to withdraw life support. A research team member or bedside clinician learned more about each of the patients and their family, then elicited and implemented at least 3 personalized wishes for patients and/or family members. We used a qualitative descriptive approach to analyze interviews and focus groups conducted with 25 clinicians who cared for the enrolled patients. We used descriptive statistics to summarize patient, wish, and clinician characteristics, and analyzed outcome data in quarters using Statistical Process Control charts. The primary outcome was enrollment of terminally ill patients and respective families; the secondary outcome was the number of wishes per patient; tertiary outcomes included wish features and stakeholder involvement. RESULTS: Both qualitative and quantitative analyses suggested a three-phase approach to the scale-up of this intervention during which 369 dying patients were enrolled, having 2039 terminal wishes implemented. From a research project to clinical program to an approach to practice, we documented a three-fold increase in enrolment with a five-fold increase in total wishes implemented, without a change in cost. Beginning as a study, the protocol provided structure; starting gradually enabled frontline staff to experience and recognize the value of acts of compassion for patients, families, and clinicians. The transition to a clinical program was marked by handover from the research staff to bedside staff, whereby project catalysts mentored project champions to create staff partnerships, and family engagement became more intentional. The final transition involved empowering staff to integrate the program as an approach to care, expanding it within and beyond the organization. CONCLUSIONS: The 3WP is an end-of-life intervention which was implemented as a study, scaled-up into a clinical program, and sustained by becoming integrated into practice as an approach to care.

End-of-Life Skills and Professionalism for Critical Care Residents in Training: The ESPRIT Survey.

End-of-life (EOL) care is a key aspect of critical care medicine (CCM) training. The goal of this study was to survey CCM residents and program directors (PDs) across Canada to describe current EOL care education. Using a literature review, we created a self-administered survey encompassing 10 CCM national objectives of training to address: (1) curricular content and evaluation methods, (2) residents' preparedness to meet these objectives, and (3) opportunities for educational improvement. We performed pilot testing and clinical sensibility testing, then distributed it to all residents and PDs across the 13 Canadian CCM programs. Our response rate was 84.3% overall (77 [81.1%] for residents and 13 [100%] for PDs). Residents rated direct observation, informal advice, and self-reflection as both the top 3 most utilized and perceived most effective teaching modalities. Residents most commonly reported comfort with skills related to pain and symptom management (n = 67, 94.3%; score > 3 on 5-point Likert scale), and least commonly reported comfort with donation after cardiac death skills (n = 26-38; 44.8%-65.5%). Base specialty and time in CCM training were independently associated with comfort ratings for some, but not all, EOL skills. With respect to family meetings, residents infrequently received feedback; however, most PDs believed feedback on 6 to 10 meetings is required for competence. When PD perceptions of teaching effectiveness were compared with resident comfort ratings, differences were most apparent for skills related to pain and symptom management, cultural awareness, and ethical principles. By the end of their first subspecialty training year, PDs expect residents to be competent at most, but not all, EOL skills. In summary, trainees and programs rely on clinical activities to develop competency in EOL care, resulting in some educational gaps. Transitioning to competency-based medical education presents an opportunity to address some of these gaps, while other gaps will require more specific curricular intervention.

Clinician Perspectives on Caring for Dying Patients During the Pandemic : A Mixed-Methods Study.

BACKGROUND: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has affected the hospital experience for patients, visitors, and staff. OBJECTIVE: To understand clinician perspectives on adaptations to end-of-life care for dying patients and their families during the pandemic. DESIGN: Mixed-methods embedded study. (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04602520). SETTING: 3 acute care medical units in a tertiary care hospital from 16 March to 1 July 2020. PARTICIPANTS: 45 dying patients, 45 family members, and 45 clinicians. INTERVENTION: During the pandemic, clinicians continued an existing practice of collating personal information about dying patients and "what matters most," eliciting wishes, and implementing acts of compassion. MEASUREMENTS: Themes from semistructured clinician interviews that were summarized with representative quotations. RESULTS: Many barriers to end-of-life care arose because of infection control practices that mandated visiting restrictions and personal protective equipment, with attendant practical and psychological consequences. During hospitalization, family visits inside or outside the patient's room were possible for 36 patients (80.0%); 13 patients (28.9%) had virtual visits with a relative or friend. At the time of death, 20 patients (44.4%) had a family member at the bedside. Clinicians endeavored to prevent unmarked deaths by adopting advocacy roles to "fill the gap" of absent family and by initiating new and established ways to connect patients and relatives. LIMITATION: Absence of clinician symptom or wellness metrics; a single-center design. CONCLUSION: Clinicians expressed their humanity through several intentional practices to preserve personalized, compassionate end-of-life care for dying hospitalized patients during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE: Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Canadian Critical Care Trials Group Research Coordinator Fund.

Experiences of Bereaved Family Members Receiving Commemorative Paintings: A Qualitative Study.

Importance: Although family members of patients who die in the intensive care unit commonly experience long-term psychological distress, end-of-life bereavement support programs for such relatives are uncommon. Whether art influences the grief experience of families is largely unexplored. Objective: To explore the influence of personalized paintings created to honor deceased critically ill patients on family members' bereavement experience. Design, Setting, and Participants: A qualitative descriptive analysis was conducted of semistructured interviews of grieving relatives who received a painting after the death of their loved one. The deceased patients were from a 21-bed medical-surgical intensive care unit. Eleven families were invited to receive a painting, of whom 1 family declined. A total of 22 family members of 10 patients who died in the intensive care unit were interviewed in the study between July 11, 2017, and May 19, 2019. Interventions: Patients were enrolled in an end-of-life care program that elicits and implements wishes of patients and their families to bring peace during the dying process. Selected families of 10 decedents were invited to receive a painting to honor their loved one 1 to 10 months after the patient's death. Using details about the patient's life story, the artist created individualized paintings to commemorate each patient. Main Outcomes and Measures: The experiences of family members receiving a personalized painting and its reported influence on their grieving experience. Results: The family members of 10 decedents (mean [SD] age, 60 [14] years; 5 women [50%]; 8 White patients [80%]) were interviewed. The central theme of art to facilitate healing was illustrated through the following domains: the cocreation process, painting narratives, postmortem connections, and legacy. The process of cocreating the paintings with the artist and family members involved reminiscing, storytelling, and creativity. Family members emphasized the role of art to facilitate healing, exemplified through connections with images portrayed that deeply resonated with memories of their loved one. Participants indicated that the paintings validated that the patient was remembered, helped families feel less alone during a time of grief, honored the loved one's life, and enhanced connections between family members and clinicians. Conclusions and Relevance: This qualitative study's findings suggest that the creation of personalized paintings commemorating the lives of patients may help foster legacy and postmortem connections with clinicians and may help family members in their healing process.

Building organizational compassion among teams delivering end-of-life care in the intensive care unit: The 3 Wishes Project.

BACKGROUND: The 3 Wishes Project is a semistructured program that improves the quality of care for patients dying in the intensive care unit by eliciting and implementing wishes. This simple intervention honors the legacy of patients and eases family grief, forging human connections between family members and clinicians. AIM: To examine how the 3 Wishes Project enables collective patterns of compassion between patients, families, clinicians, and managerial leaders in the intensive care unit. DESIGN: Using a qualitative descriptive approach, interviews and focus groups were used to collect data from family members of dying patients, clinicians, and institutional leaders. Unconstrained directed qualitative content analysis was performed using Organizational Compassion as the analytic framework. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: Four North American intensive care units, participants were 74 family members of dying patients, 72 frontline clinicians, and 20 managerial leaders. RESULTS: The policies and processes of the 3 Wishes Project exemplify organizational compassion by supporting individuals in the intensive care unit to collectively notice, feel, and respond to suffering. As an intervention that enables and empowers clinicians to engage in acts of kindness to enhance end-of-life care, the 3 Wishes Project is particularly well situated to encourage collective responses to suffering and promote compassion between patients, family members, and clinicians. CONCLUSIONS: Examining the 3 Wishes Project through the lens of organizational compassion reveals the potential of this program to cultivate the capacity for people to collectively notice, feel, and respond to suffering. Our data document multidirectional demonstrations of compassion between clinicians and family members, forging the type of human connections that may foster resilience.

Palliative care clinical rotations among undergraduate and postgraduate medical trainees in Canada: a descriptive study.

BACKGROUND: The number of medical undergraduate and postgraduate students completing palliative care clinical rotations in Canadian medical schools is currently unknown. The aim of this study was to assess the proportion of Canadian medical trainees completing clinical rotations in palliative care and to determine whether changes took place between 2008 and 2018. METHODS: In this descriptive study, all Canadian medical schools (n = 17) were invited to provide data at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels (2007/08-2015/16 and 2007/08-2017/18, respectively). Information collected included the number, type and length of palliative care clinical rotations offered and the total number of medical trainees or residents enrolled at each school. RESULTS: All 17 Canadian medical schools responded to the request for information. At the undergraduate level, palliative care clinical rotations were not offered in 2 schools, mandatory in 2 and optional in 13. Three schools that offered optional rotations were unable to provide complete data and were therefore excluded from further analyses. In 2015/16, only 29.7% of undergraduate medical students completed palliative care clinical rotations, yet this was a significant improvement compared to 2011/12 (13.6%, p = 0.02). At the postgraduate level, on average, 57.9% of family medicine trainees completed such rotations between 2007/08 and 2016/17. During the same period, palliative care clinical rotations were completed by trainees in specialty or subspecialty programs in anesthesiology (34.2%), geriatric medicine (64.4%), internal medicine (30.9%), neurology (28.2%) and psychiatry (64.5%). INTERPRETATION: Between 2008 and 2018, a large proportion of Canadian medical trainees graduated without the benefit of a clinical rotation in palliative care. Without dedicated clinical exposure to palliative care, many physicians will enter practice without vital palliative care competencies.

Compassionate End-of-Life Care: Mixed-Methods Multisite Evaluation of the 3 Wishes Project.

Background: The 3 Wishes Project (3WP) is an end-of-life program that aims to honor the dignity of dying patients by creating meaningful patient- and family-centered memories while promoting humanistic interprofessional care. Objective: To determine whether this palliative intervention could be successfully implemented-defined as demonstrating value, transferability, affordability, and sustainability-beyond the intensive care unit in which it was created. Design: Mixed-methods formative program evaluation. (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04147169). Setting: 4 North American intensive care units. Participants: Dying patients, their families, clinicians, hospital managers, and administrators. Intervention: Wishes from dying patients, family members, and clinicians were elicited and implemented. Measurements: Patient characteristics and processes of care; the number, type, and cost of each wish; and semistructured interviews and focus groups with family members, clinicians, and managers. Results: A total of 730 patients were enrolled, and 3407 wishes were elicited. Qualitative data were gathered from 75 family members, 72 clinicians, and 20 managers or hospital administrators. Value included intentional comforting of families as they honored the lives and legacies of their loved ones while inspiring compassionate clinical care. Factors promoting transferability included family appreciation and a collaborative intensive care unit culture committed to dignity-conserving end-of-life care. Staff participation evolved from passive support to professional agency. Program initiation required minimal investment for reusable materials; thereafter, the mean cost was $5.19 (SD, $17.14) per wish. Sustainability was demonstrated by the continuation of 3WP at each site after study completion. Limitation: This descriptive formative evaluation describes tertiary care center-specific experiences rather than aiming for generalizability to all jurisdictions. Conclusion: The 3WP is a transferrable, affordable, and sustainable program that provides value to dying patients, their families, clinicians, and institutions. Primary Funding Source: Greenwall Foundation.

The Development and Validation of Updated Palliative and End-of-Life Care Competencies for Medical Undergraduates in Canada.

In 2008, a Canadian strategy called the "Educating Future Physicians in Palliative and End-of-Life Care" (EFPPEC) project published national medical undergraduate competencies for palliative and end-of-life care. Since that time, there have been several changes in the practice environment. To formally incorporate these changes and also update the competencies for EFPPEC, an EFPPEC update project team was established in 2017. The EFPPEC update document in English was finalized in June 2018, and subsequent minor amendments to the French version were completed in January 2019. This report describes the process and also shares the new updated EFPPEC competencies with the wider palliative care community.

Staffing a Specialist Palliative Care Service, a Team-Based Approach: Expert Consensus White Paper.

Palliative care is an evolving field with extensive studies demonstrating its benefits to patients, families, and the health care system. Many health systems have developed or are developing palliative care programs. The Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians (CSPCP) is often asked to recommend how many palliative care specialists are needed to implement and support an integrated palliative care program. This information would allow health service decision makers and educational institutions to plan resources accordingly to manage the needs of their communities. The CSPCP is well positioned to answer this question, as many of its members are Directors of palliative care programs and have been responsible for creating and overseeing the pioneering work of building these programs over the past few decades. In 2017, the CSPCP commissioned a working group to develop a staffing model for specialist palliative care teams based on the interdependence of three key professional roles, an extensive literature search, key stakeholder interviews, and expert opinions. This article is the Canadian Society of Palliative Care's recommended starting point that will be further evaluated as it is utilized across Canada. For more information and to see sample calculations go to the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians Staffing Model for Palliative Care Programs (https://www.cspcp.ca).

Experiences and Expressions of Spirituality at the End of Life in the Intensive Care Unit.

RATIONALE: The austere setting of the intensive care unit (ICU) can suppress expressions of spirituality. OBJECTIVES: To describe how family members and clinicians experience and express spirituality during the dying process in a 21-bed medical-surgical ICU. METHODS: Reflecting the care of 70 dying patients, we conducted 208 semistructured qualitative interviews with 76 family members and 150 clinicians participating in the Three Wishes Project. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed by three investigators using qualitative interpretive description. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Participants characterize dying as a spiritual event. Spirituality is an integral part of the life narrative of the patient before, during, and after death. Experiences and expressions of spirituality for patients, families, and clinicians during end-of-life care in the ICU are supported by eliciting and implementing wishes in several ways. Eliciting wishes stimulates conversations for people of diverse spiritual orientations to respond to death in personally meaningful ways that facilitate continuity and closure, and ease emotional trauma. Soliciting wishes identifies positive aspirations, which provide comfort in the face of death. The act of soliciting wishes brings clinician humanity to the fore. Wishing makes individual spiritual preferences and practices more accessible. Wishes may be grounded in spiritual goals, such as peace, comfort, connections, and tributes; they may seek a spiritually enhanced environment or represent specific spiritual interventions. CONCLUSIONS: Family members and clinicians consider spirituality an important dimension of end-of-life care. The Three Wishes Project invites and supports the expression of myriad forms of spirituality during the dying process in the ICU.

Narrative medicine and death in the ICU: word clouds as a visual legacy.

OBJECTIVE: The Word Cloud is a frequent wish in the 3 Wishes Project developed to nurture peace and ease the grieving process for dying critically ill patients. The objective was to examine whether Word Clouds can act as a heuristic approach to encourage a narrative orientation to medicine. Narrative medicine is an approach which can strengthen relationships, compassion and resilience. DESIGN: Word Clouds were created for 42 dying patients, and we interviewed 37 family members and 73 clinicians about their impact. We conducted a directed qualitative content analysis, using the 3 stages of narrative medicine (attention, representation, affiliation) to examine the narrative medicine potential of Word Clouds. RESULTS: The elicitation of stories for the Word Cloud promotes narrative attention to the patient as a whole person. The distillation of these stories into a list of words and the prioritisation of those words for arrangement in the collage encourages a representation that did not enforce a beginning, middle or end to the story of the patient's life. Strong affiliative connections were achieved through the honouring of patients, caring for families and sharing of memories encouraged through the creation, sharing and discussion of Word Clouds. CONCLUSIONS: In the 3 Wishes Project, Word Clouds are 1 way that families and clinicians honour a dying patient. Engaging in the process of making a Word Cloud can promote a narrative orientation to medicine, forging connections, making meaning through reminiscence and leaving a legacy of a loved one. Documenting and displaying words to remember someone in death reaffirms their life.

Personalizing death in the intensive care unit: the 3 Wishes Project: a mixed-methods study.

BACKGROUND: Dying in the complex, efficiency-driven environment of the intensive care unit can be dehumanizing for the patient and have profound, long-lasting consequences for all persons attendant to that death. OBJECTIVE: To bring peace to the final days of a patient's life and to ease the grieving process. DESIGN: Mixed-methods study. SETTING: 21-bed medical-surgical intensive care unit. PARTICIPANTS: Dying patients and their families and clinicians. INTERVENTION: To honor each patient, a set of wishes was generated by patients, family members, or clinicians. The wishes were implemented before or after death by patients, families, clinicians (6 of whom were project team members), or the project team. MEASUREMENTS: Quantitative data included demographic characteristics, processes of care, and scores on the Quality of End-of-Life Care-10 instrument. Semistructured interviews of family members and clinicians were transcribed verbatim, and qualitative description was used to analyze them. RESULTS: Participants included 40 decedents, at least 1 family member per patient, and 3 clinicians per patient. The 159 wishes were implemented and classified into 5 categories: humanizing the environment, tributes, family reconnections, observances, and "paying it forward." Scores on the Quality of End-of-Life Care-10 instrument were high. The central theme from 160 interviews of 170 persons was how the 3 Wishes Project personalized the dying process. For patients, eliciting and customizing the wishes honored them by celebrating their lives and dignifying their deaths. For families, it created positive memories and individualized end-of-life care for their loved ones. For clinicians, it promoted interprofessional care and humanism in practice. LIMITATION: Impaired consciousness limited understanding of patients' viewpoints. CONCLUSION: The 3 Wishes Project facilitated personalization of the dying process through explicit integration of palliative and spiritual care into critical care practice. PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE: Hamilton Academy of Health Science Research Organization, Canadian Intensive Care Foundation.

An evidence-based quality improvement perspective for a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease case-finding program.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a persistent progressive respiratory disease that is increasing in prevalence and cost in the United States health care system. Delays in recognition, diagnosis, and treatment are associated with poorer clinical outcomes. These delays are seen more often in populations experiencing economic hardship, lack of access to care, and lack of insurance, such as those seen in an indigent care clinic. The COPD case-finding program was planned as an evidence-based quality improvement project with a prospective, descriptive design generating a convenience sample of patients meeting modified screening criteria (i.e. patients 40 years of age with a smoking history and no pulmonary disease history) in a community-based indigent care clinic which was not screening for COPD. Practice change recommendations were guided by the Diffusion of Innovations Model. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the sample (i.e. age, ethnicity, race, gender, income, and selected comorbidities). Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, prevalence, and receiver operator characteristics curve COPD Questionnaire were calculated for this sample.

A method to enhance student teams in palliative care: piloting the McMaster-Ottawa Team Observed Structured Clinical Encounter.

BACKGROUND: The need for palliative and end-of-life care (PEOLC) education in prelicensure education has been identified. PEOLC requires effective collaborative teamwork. The competencies required for effective collaborative teamwork are only now emerging and methods to evaluate them must be developed. OBJECTIVE: The adaptation of the traditional Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) for assessment of a student team addressing palliative care issues was undertaken. The McMaster-Ottawa Team Observed Structured Clinical Encounter (TOSCE) is intended as a formative evaluation tool for both competencies in interprofessional collaboration for patient-centered practice and PEOLC. METHODS: Three stations based on palliative care scenarios were developed. From January 2007 to January 2008, a total of 141 students and 38 observers participated in the evaluation of three stations, with 6-7 students per group and two observers per station. Observers completed checklists for both PEOLC and interprofessional collaborative competencies and, after completing the TOSCEs, students and observers completed questionnaires on their feasibility and acceptability. RESULTS: Eighty-nine percent of the students and 44% of the observers were from medicine. Students and observers found the TOSCE to be an acceptable and feasible assessment tool for both sets of competencies. Reliability and validity data show that the items in both the clinical and interprofessional checklists fit well together, and interrater reliability is readily achieved. CONCLUSIONS: The new formative evaluation TOSCE tool, adapted from the traditional OSCE, was acceptable and feasible to students and observers.