Evaluation of a Multifaceted Educational Intervention to Improve Palliative Care in the Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

Currently, palliative care needs are inconsistently implemented in intensive care units (ICUs). To remedy this problem, a multifaceted educational intervention was delivered to interdisciplinary ICU team members to promote the adoption of the Care and Communication Bundle for patients identified as being at a high risk of death. A preintervention/postintervention evaluation design was used to determine the extent to which the nine quality measures of the Care and Communication Bundle, patient length of stay, and patient mortality were changed after this educational intervention. On the basis of statistical results, documentation of an appropriate decision maker, advance directives, resuscitation status, and social work contact significantly improved after the multifaceted educational intervention to integrate palliative care measures into the ICU.