Increasing the Number of Patients Receiving Information About Transition to End-of-life Care

Palliative Care Clinical Trial

Official title:

Increasing the Number of Patients Receiving Information About Transition to End-of-life Care: the Effect of a Half-day Physician and Nurse Training

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT02091622
• Other study ID #: Intervention-sv-pall
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• First received: March 13, 2014
• Last updated: March 17, 2014
• Start date: August 2011
• Est. completion date: October 2012

Study information

• Verified date: March 2014
• Source: Umeå University
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Health authority: Sweden: Swedish Register of Palliative Care
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Introduction: Honest prognostication and information for patients are important parts of end-of-life care. This study examined whether an educational intervention could increase the proportion of patients who received information about the transition to end-of-life care (ITEOL).

Method: Two municipalities (in charge of nursing homes) and two hospitals were randomized to receive an interactive half-day course about ITEOL for physicians and nurses. The proportion of patients who received ITEOL was measured with data from the Swedish Register of Palliative Care (SRPC). Patients were only included if they died an expected death and maintained their ability to express their will until days or hours before their death. Four hospitals and four municipalities were assigned controls, matched by hospital size, population, and proportion of patients receiving ITEOL at baseline.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 1431
• Est. completion date: October 2012
• Est. primary completion date: October 2012
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: Both
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Hospitals and municipalities: Participation in the Swedish Register of Palliative Care.

• Patients: Reported from an included hospital or municipality during six months before to six months after intervention.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Hospitals and municipalities: Exclusion criteria were more than 40% patients receiving ITEOL at start of study, too large for an intervention due to practical reasons (university hospitals or municipalities with over 100 000 inhabitants), and hospitals not containing both internal medicine and surgery departments.

• Patients were excluded when death was unexpected, when a forensic post mortem examination was performed, or when the patients had lost their ability to express their will and take part in decisions concerning the content of medical care one week or more before death.

Study Design

Allocation: Randomized, Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment, Masking: Open Label

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Disclosure
• Palliative Care

Intervention

Other:
• Educative intervention
Two municipalities (in charge of nursing homes) and two hospitals were randomized to receive an interactive half-day course about ITEOL for physicians and nurses.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Sweden	Umeå University, Dept of radiation sciences	Umeå

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Umeå University

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Sweden, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	The proportion of patients who received ITEOL	The proportion of patients who received ITEOL was measured with data from the Swedish Register of Palliative Care (SRPC). Six months after the intervention data were collected from the SRPC for all patients who had died at the included hospitals and municipalities. Data were collected from six months before the intervention to six months after the intervention. The outcome was compared before and after the intervention.	Six months after intervention	No