Introducing the Palliative Care Comprehensive Tool in Family Medicine

Overview

The purpose of this study is to pilot the introduction of a newly developed palliative care tool to clinicians in a family health team. The intent of the tool is to improve the quality and comprehensiveness of palliative care, which effects caregiver and patient satisfaction with care received, as well as clinician satisfaction with their delivery of care. Tool effectiveness will be evaluated by measuring satisfaction scores of caregivers, patients and clinicians who receive training and access to the tool compared to caregivers, patients and clinicians providing usual care (without the tool). Uptake of the tool and user feedback will be collected

A newly developed tool to guide clinicians in best palliative care practices was developed based on a combination of published tools and consultation with primary care, end users (clinicians). The tool will be introduced as a pilot to clinicians who will receive training on use of the tool and access to the tool within a family health team in Ontario, Canada. The tool will be applied in a controlled study environment that randomly assigns clinicians to one of two groups. One group will receive training and access to the tool and the other group of clinicians will continue to provide usual care.The tool will be evaluated based on validated satisfaction surveys completed by caregivers, patients and clinicians. Satisfaction scores of those randomly assigned to care enhanced by the tool will be compared to those receiving usual care at the beginning and end of the study. Uptake of the tool will be measured, as well as user experience with the tool (feasibility and acceptability)