Our long-term goal is to improve spiritual care outcomes for elderly patients with cancer. The study team will use a spiritual intervention, Dignity Therapy (DT), to help these patients maintain pride, find spiritual comfort, enhance continuity of self, and ultimately make meaning of their life threatening illness.
The study team propose a 3 arm pre/posttest, RCT with a 4-step (approximately 12 months per step), stepped-wedge design to compare effects of usual outpatient palliative care (usual care) and usual care along with either nurse-led or chaplain-led DT on patient outcomes, cancer prognosis awareness. The study team will assign 6 outpatient palliative care sites to usual care during the first-step, and randomly assign two sites per step to begin and continue DT led by either a nurse or a chaplain during each of the next 3 steps. During the usual care steps, 280 patients will complete pretest measures and satisfaction with palliative spiritual care services, receive usual palliative care, and complete posttest measures. During the experimental steps as part of routine palliative care service delivery, 280 patients will complete pretest measures, receive nurse-led or chaplain-led DT, and complete posttest measures. Using mixed level analysis with site, provider (nurse, chaplain) and time (step) included in the model, the study team will compare the usual care and each of the DT groups for effects on dignity impact, existential tasks, and cancer prognosis awareness and explore the moderating effects of physical symptoms and spiritual distress. The study team will also determine the effect of usual care and DT on the patient's satisfaction with palliative spiritual care services and the report of the patient's unmet spiritual needs.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
579
The nurse-led intervention involves three sessions, each of which follows a set process. The standardize approach to the delivery of the intervention facilitates a personal process of reflection and recognition that allows the patient to make meaning of their experience.
Palliative care nurses usually see patients each clinic visit to assess vital signs, function, symptoms, and to provide patient and family education. They document findings and interventions in the electronic health record (EHR). Whereas usual care for palliative care chaplaincy in the outpatient setting varies by site, chaplaincy care for usual care patients in this study will follow the usual practice for inpatient palliative care chaplaincy, which is to visit all new referrals to the clinic and assess their spiritual and religious needs. This assessment is then memorialized in a spiritual treatment plan documented in the EHR.
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida, United States
Dignity Impact Scale
Our primary outcome measure is a 7-item Dignity Impact Scale. The items are scored on a 5-point scale from 'strongly disagree' (1) to 'strongly agree' (5). The scores can range from 7 to 35 with higher scores representing better outcome.
Time frame: 5 weeks
Preparation
Preparation for death subscale taken from the QUAL-E, a measure designed to evaluate quality of life and to assess the effectiveness of interventions targeted to improve the quality of life at the end of life. Scores range from 4 to 20 with higher scores representing better outcomes.
Time frame: 5 weeks
Completion
Life completion subscale taken from the QUAL-E, a measure designed to evaluate quality of life and to assess the effectiveness of interventions targeted to improve the quality of life at the end of life. Scores range from 7 to 35 with higher scores representing better outcomes.
Time frame: 5 weeks
Peaceful Awareness
We measured peaceful awareness with the 2 items: terminal illness awareness and peaceful awareness questionnaire. The first focused on terminal illness acknowledgement (TIA) in which patients rated their current health status as 1) relatively healthy, 2) seriously but not terminally ill, or 3) seriously and terminally ill. The second item focused on the frequency of feeling deep inner peace or harmony, which was rated on a 6-point Likert scale ranging from 1) never or almost never to 6) many times a day. Scores of at least 3 on each of the two items defined positive peaceful awareness, a dichotomous measure.
Time frame: 5 weeks
Treatment Preference
We measured treatment preferences with a single item from the standardized and validated Hypothetical Advanced Care Planning Scenario (H-CAP-S) that assesses treatment preferences.
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The chaplain-led DT intervention involves three sessions, each of which follows a set process. The standardize approach to the delivery of the intervention facilitates a personal process of reflection and recognition that allows the patient to make meaning of their experience.
Time frame: 5 weeks