Enabling Advance Directive Completion (EADCRAV)

Enabling Advance Directive Completion by Rural Alabama Veterans: A Pilot Study

Objectives: The objectives of the pilot study were to (1) test the feasibility of recruitment, randomization, and retention; (2) test the feasibility of a standardized Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention; (3) evaluate the feasibility of the assessment process and data collection procedures; (4) evaluate the Veterans' satisfaction with the intervention and their Advance Directive decisions; and (5) evaluate preliminary effects of the Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention.

Research Design: This was a prospective, randomized, controlled, unblinded pilot study. Alabama Veterans who received care through the Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center were randomized to either the Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention or Care-as-Usual in a 2:1 ratio respectively. Data related to recruitment, randomization, and retention; study completion by subjects; completeness of data collection; Veterans' satisfaction; and preliminary effects of the intervention were collected, analyzed, and evaluated. The length of the study was one year.

Methods: The setting for the study was Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center care sites. A convenience sample of fifty subjects was recruited from Tuscaloosa VA outpatient clinics including Selma, residential settings, Home Based Primary Care, and the Mobile Health Unit. The level of care of subjects was all-inclusive, excepting current Hospice or Palliative Care. Selection procedures included self-referral and referral by Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center staff. Entry requirements were the meeting of all inclusion criteria and verification of no exclusion criteria. The Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention was a manualized education, support, and guidance session provided by a Registered Nurse that included information about risks, benefits, and alternatives of specific choices. The Care-as-Usual was a session with the social worker who explained what the Advance Directive is, and guided the Veteran regarding the process of completing the Advance Directive document, without providing information about risks, benefits, and alternatives of specific choices. Study enrollment period was six months. The primary study outcome measure was Advance Directive completion rate. This pilot was not a hypothesis testing study. The underlying hypothesis of the eventual full study is that the Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention is associated with Advance Directive completion rates at least comparable to that of the As-Usual care.

Significance: This study supports the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) mission to provide Veteran-centered care. It provides important information needed to plan a full study of the effectiveness of a specific Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention to facilitate Advance Directive completion by rural Alabama Veterans.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Advance Directives
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: The Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention; Other: Care-as-Usual

Detailed Description

Background:

The VHA mission to serve the health care needs of America's veterans assumes a veteran-centered approach - one that evolves not only from the health team's assessment of needs, but especially one that begins with the veteran's assessment of his or her own needs. Preliminary data from the Alabama Veterans Rural Health Initiative study suggest that approximately 30% of rural Alabama veterans do not have an Advance Directive and want help completing one. Rural Alabama veterans live in counties with a higher percent of African American minorities, lower levels of education, and higher family poverty rates, than the average for the US population at large. Prior studies have demonstrated that disparities in Advance Directive completion rates may be related to race, level of income, and level of education. VHA research priorities include addressing the challenges of minority health care needs and the disparities that arise in healthcare delivery. Although many studies evidence the effectiveness of education and counseling in facilitating Advance Directive completion, data are lacking that demonstrate the efficacy of resource-conservative nursing interventions to enable Advance Directive completion by rural, southern minorities. This pilot lays the groundwork to address this evidence gap.

Objectives:

The objectives of the pilot study were to (1) test the feasibility of recruitment, randomization, and retention; (2) test the feasibility of a standardized Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention; (3) evaluate the feasibility of the assessment process and data collection procedures; (4) evaluate the Veterans' satisfaction with the intervention and their Advance Directive decisions; and (5) evaluate preliminary effects of the Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention.

Methods:

A prospective, randomized, controlled pilot study. Fifty Alabama veterans who receive care at the Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center were randomized to either the Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention or Care-as-Usual. The Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention was a manualized education, support, and guidance session provided by a Registered Nurse that included information about risks, benefits, and alternatives of specific choices. The Care-as-Usual was a session with the social worker who explained what the Advance Directive is, and guided the Veteran regarding the process of completing the Advance Directive document, without providing information about risks, benefits, and alternatives of specific choices. Data related to recruitment, randomization, and retention; study completion by subjects; completeness of data collection; Veterans' satisfaction; and preliminary effects of the intervention were collected, analyzed, and evaluated.

Status:

The Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center Institutional Review Board (IRB) has approved this study. Study is closed.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 50
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Alabama
    • Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States, 35404
      • Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center, Tuscaloosa, AL

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 19 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Signed informed consent
• Male or female
• Any race or ethnic origin
• 19 years of age (i.e. minors are excluded)
• Veteran indicates he/she has no Advance Directive
• Speaks and understands English
• Any category of rurality through urbanity of home residence or place of habitation
• Veteran is willing to extend the screening/baseline visit or return within 30 days for the advance care planning (ACP) session

Exclusion Criteria:

• Diagnosis of dementia (all causes) or other cognitive disorder documented in computerized patient record system problem list. (Note: this would include, for example, a mental disability that precludes informed consent capacity, e.g. a documented condition including an age level equivalency understanding of a child of age 6)
• Diagnosis of serious mental illness (i.e. schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar I, major depression with psychotic features) documented in computerized patient record system problem list
• Actively considering plans of suicide or homicide per self report during screening interview direct question
• Psychotic symptoms that impair the subject's ability to give informed consent
• Current hospice care or palliative care recipient. (Note: The major predicted potential impact of this intervention is for Veterans who typically receive little or no ACP support. Veterans who receive palliative care/hospice care at Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center (VAMC) typically receive timely and full ACP support including Advance Directive completion support if desired. Veterans receiving palliative care and hospice care at Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center may tire easily and/or have pain/discomfort problems that could easily be exacerbated by research procedures. These research procedures themselves have the potential to add to end of life distress.)
• Currently incarcerated

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention; The Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention was a manualized education, support, and guidance session provided by a Registered Nurse that included information about risks, benefits, and alternatives of specific choices.	Other: The Nurse-Supported Advance Care Planning Intervention; This intervention was a manualized education, support, and guidance session provided by a Registered Nurse that included information about risks, benefits, and alternatives of specific choices. It incorporated an application of the Theory for Enabling Safety.; Other Names: Enabling Intervention, RN session
Active Comparator: Care-as-Usual; The Care-as-Usual was a session with the social worker who explained what the Advance Directive is, and guided the Veteran regarding the process of completing the Advance Directive document, without providing information about risks, benefits, and alternatives of specific choices. Subjects in this arm who desired information about risks, benefits, and alternatives of specific choices before randomization were scheduled for the Care-as-Usual session after they received that information from the Primary Care Provider.	Other: Care-as-Usual; The Care-as-Usual was a session with the social worker who explained what the Advance Directive is, and guided the Veteran regarding the process of completing the Advance Directive document, without providing information about risks, benefits, and alternatives of specific choices.; Other Names: As Usual (AU) Intervention, SW session

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Number of Participants Who Completed an Advance Directive	An advance directive was considered completed upon confirmation of the scanned document in the medical record.	Up to 1 month after intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Satisfaction	Score on the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire-8 (CSQ-8). The overall score is produced by summing all item responses. For the CSQ-8, scores range from 8 to 32, with higher values indicating higher satisfaction. Response options differ from item to item, but all are based on a four-point scale. All items are positively worded; however, the directionality of response options span the spectrum from very negative to very positive; and, the numerical anchors for items are reversed randomly (from high to low or low to high) from item to item to minimize stereotypic response sets. The CSQ-8 has no subscales and reports a single score measuring a single dimension of overall satisfaction.	For participants who received the allocated intervention, up to one month after intervention; for all others, up to 90 days after consenting to the study.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: US Department of Veterans Affairs
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Ann F Mahaney-Price, BSN MS DNP, VA Medical Center, Tuscaloosa, AL

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Ohlen J, Andershed B, Berg C, Frid I, Palm CA, Ternestedt BM, Segesten K. Relatives in end-of-life care--part 2: a theory for enabling safety. J Clin Nurs. 2007 Feb;16(2):382-90. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2702.2006.01474.x.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: April 1, 2013
• Primary Completion (Actual): January 1, 2014
• Study Completion (Actual): February 1, 2014

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 29, 2012
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 7, 2012
• First Posted (Estimate): December 10, 2012

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): June 12, 2015
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 26, 2015
• Last Verified: May 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: advance directives
• Other Study ID Numbers: NRI 10-311