Care Planning Documentation Research Articles

QLTI-18. TREATMENT AND OUTCOMES OF FRAIL PATIENTS WITH NEWLY DIAGNOSED HIGH-GRADE GLIOMAS: SHOULD WE CONSIDER CHANGING OUR TREATMENT APPROACH?

Abstract BACKGROUND Patients with newly diagnosed high-grade glioma (HGG) and low Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) often face challenges in receiving cancer-directed therapy. They are excluded from prospective trials, limiting the chance of developing novel therapeutic approaches. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed charts of patients with functional debility and newly diagnosed HGG who received radiotherapy (RT) while admitted to the inpatient service at Memorial Sloan Kettering between 2013 and 2023. Multivariable analyses were performed which associated patient demographics, KPS, histology, genetic and molecular pathology, RT duration and dose, chemotherapy, palliative/supportive care consultation, and advanced care planning documentation with overall survival (OS) and discharge location, separately. RESULTS Fifty-four patients were identified; median age was 68 years (range:21-86) and 28 (52%) were women. Median KPS was 50 (range:30-70). Per WHO 2021 criteria, 47 (87%) were glioblastoma, IDH wild-type and 7 (13%) were HGG not otherwise specified, diagnosed by biopsy in 30 (56%), subtotal resection in 23 (43%), and gross total resection in one. MGMT promoter methylation was performed in 39/54 and was hypermethylated in 15 (38%). All patients received RT and 52 (96%) with concurrent temozolomide; 47/54 (87%) completed planned RT, with the median dose of 4,005 cGy in 15 fractions. 13 (24%) received bevacizumab. The median length of stay (LOS) was 29 days (range:20-65). Only 17 (31%) had palliative care consultation prior to discharge. The median OS (mOS) from the last radiation treatment was 4.21 months (95% CI: 2.73, 6.63). In multivariable Cox and logistic regression, respectively, lower KPS remained the sole factor significantly associated with increased risk of death (p=0.004) and decreased chance of return home (p=0.040). CONCLUSION In our patient cohort, treatment was associated with prolonged LOS and poor outcomes. A clinical trial should be considered to evaluate shorter RT courses and early palliative care consultation in this patient population.

A cross-sectional study on advance care planning documentation attitudes during national advance care planning week in a South-East Asian country

BackgroundThrough advocacy initiatives such as roadshows during “National ACP Week”, the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) had increased advance care planning (ACP) engagement since 2011. Project Happy Apples (PHA), a community initiative project led by medical students from the National University of Singapore, also conducted a public exhibition to raise ACP awareness during this period. This study aimed to investigate and identify predictors of attitudes towards ACP documentation among ‘ACP Week’ respondents which may be used to formulate strategies to increase ACP documentation in Singapore.MethodsA cross-sectional study on ACP documentation attitudes of 262 respondents during local roadshows were conducted. Multiple logistic regression models were built to investigate the associations between demographic variables and attitudes toward ACP documentation.ResultsThe mean age was 43.5 years (SD = 17.4), 79 (30.15%) were males and 49 (18.7%) were healthcare professionals (HCP). 117 (44.66%) respondents had prior experience with serious illness and 116 (44.27%) had heard of ACP. Age was a significant predictor of readiness to sign official papers naming nominated healthcare spokesperson (NHS) (OR = 1.04, 95%CI: 1.02–1.07). Experience with serious illness was a significant predictor of readiness to discuss end-of-life (EOL) care with healthcare professionals (HCP) (OR = 3.65, 95%CI: 1.36–11.61). Being female was a significant predictor for readiness to speak to their nominated healthcare spokesperson about EOL care (OR = 7.33, 95%CI: 2.06–46.73). Subgroup analyses revealed that those aged 20–39 were less likely to speak to their healthcare professional about or sign official papers regarding EOL care. We also found that being a healthcare professional does not necessitate better or worse attitudes.ConclusionAdvocacy programs tailored to targeting respondents of different age groups and prior experience with serious illness may improve the efficacy of advocacy efforts.

A Study to Determine Consensus for Nursing Documentation Reduction in Times of Crisis.

Nurses faced numerous challenges during the pandemic, particularly with the increased burden of electronic documentation. Surges in patient volume and visits led to rapid changes in nursing documentation, prompting diverse responses from regulatory and healthcare organizations. Nurses expressed safety concerns and struggled with changes, calling for national standards and regulatory support. Policy relaxations, such as the 1135 Waiver, sparked debate on the future of nursing care plan documentation. Using mixed-methods exploratory design, the study identified modifications of nursing documentation during crises, commonalities in documentation burden reduction for applicability beyond pandemics, and consensus on the definition of "surge." Documentation patterns were assessed from February to November 2022, involving 175 North American nurse leaders and informaticists. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, thematic analysis, and Pearson correlation coefficient. Significant differences were found between rural and urban settings (P = .02), with urban areas showing higher odds of changes to care plans (odds ratio, 4.889; 95% confidence interval, 1.27-18.78). Key findings highlighted the persistence of postcrisis documentation changes and varied definitions of surge criteria based on organizational leadership, policy, and mandates. The study yielded insights for modifying documentation, offering policy recommendations, and emphasizing ongoing collaboration and evidence-based approaches for future nursing practices.

Automated patient selection and care coaches to increase advance care planning for cancer patients.

Advance care planning/serious illness conversations can help clinicians understand patients' values and preferences. There are limited data on how to increase these conversations, and their effect on care patterns. We hypothesized that using a machine learning survival model to select patients for serious illness conversations, along with trained care coaches to conduct the conversations, would increase uptake in cancer patients at high risk of short-term mortality. We conducted a cluster-randomized stepped wedge study on the physician level. Oncologists entered the intervention condition in a random order over six months. Adult patients with metastatic cancer were included. Patients with <2 year computer-predicted survival and no prognosis documentation were classified as high-priority for serious illness conversations. In the intervention condition, providers received automated weekly emails highlighting high-priority patients and were asked to document prognosis for them. Care coaches reached out to these patients to conduct the remainder of the conversation. The primary endpoint was proportion of visits with prognosis documentation within 14 days. 6,372 visits in 1,825 patients were included in the primary analysis. The proportion of visits with prognosis documentation within 14 days was higher in the intervention condition than control condition: 2.9% vs 1.1% (adjusted odds ratio 4.3, p < .0001). The proportion of visits with advance care planning documentation was also higher in the intervention condition: 7.7% vs 1.8% (adjusted odds ratio 14.2, p < .0001). In high-priority visits, advance care planning documentation rate in intervention/control visits was 24.2% vs 4.0%. The intervention increased documented conversations, with contributions by both providers and care coaches.

Missed Opportunities for use of Advanced Care Planning and Palliative Care in Open Aortic Surgery

Major vascular surgery, including open aortic procedures, is associated with having a 30-day mortality rate greater than 6% and a perioperative complication rate greater than 50%. Published literature suggests that patients undergoing high-risk procedures benefit from having a care plan in place to not only maximize quality of life but also to ensure medical interventions align with care goals. Currently, there is a paucity of published data on the prevalence of goals of care conversations, advance care planning documentation, and palliative care evaluations in patients undergoing high-risk vascular operations. A retrospective chart review of all patients who underwent open aortic surgery at a tertiary care academic medical center from July 2014 to March 2023 was performed. Patient demographics, comorbidities, type and timing of advanced care planning (ACP), palliative care evaluations, and clinical outcomes during the periprocedural period were recorded. For patients who died during the study period, the use of palliative care prior to death were noted. Patients who received ACP or palliative care were compared with those who did not. The cohort consisted of 192 patients who underwent major open aortic surgery. The mean age was 63 years (SD 12.3) and the majority of patients were male (73.4%) and white (64.1%). Thirty-nine (20.6%) operations were classified as emergent. At the time of their operation, 16.7% (n=32) of patients had an ACP document on file. Of the 38 documents on file, most were durable power of attorney (DPOA) (86.8%) documents while a smaller percentage were physician orders for life-sustaining treatment (POLST) (13.2%). There were no patients with Do Not Resuscitate and/or Intubate (DNR/DNI), living will, or organ/tissue donation orders noted in their chart prior to surgery. One percent (n=2) of patients had a palliative evaluation prior to their operation. During the perioperative period, an additional 2 (1%) of patients had advanced care planning documentation and 7 (3.7%) of patients underwent palliative care evaluation. Fifteen percent of patients (n=28) died during the perioperative period and an additional 21 patients died by the end of the study period for a total mortality of 25.2% in the study population. Among patients that died during the perioperative period, 28.6% (n=8 out of 28) received palliative care. Overall, 28.6% of all study patients that died (n=14 out of 49) received a palliative care evaluation prior to or during their terminal hospitalization. Patients who had ACP documents or who received palliative care consultations prior to surgery were older (p=0.01), more likely to be on Medicare or Medicaid (p=0.004), and more likely to have a history of solid organ malignancy (p=0.03). The median interval between surgery and receiving palliative care was 20 (IQR 3-71) days. The median interval between palliative care and death was 5 (IQR 2-13) days. Patients who utilized ACP or PC were more likely to die at home (p=0.05). Despite a high mortality and morbidity rate, ACP documentation is poor for patients undergoing major open aortic surgery. Palliative care interventions tend to be performed closer to the end of life, suggesting a missed opportunity to define goals of care.

Abstract C005: Predictors of advance care planning documentation in female patients with breast cancer: A multilevel model analysis

Abstract Background: Advance care planning (ACP) is a process that supports adults at any age or stage of health in understanding and sharing their personal values, life goals, and preferences regarding future medical care. Likewise, ACP is associated with multiple benefits, such as lower rates of hospitalizations and reduced futile, aggressive cancer treatment at the end of life. However, ACP rates remain low in the U.S., especially for patients with advanced cancer. Despite being more likely to be diagnosed at advanced stages and hospitalized due to advanced cancer with poor prognosis, the Black and Hispanic/Latino populations continue to have meager rates of ACP. Research has shown that both individual-level and systems-level factors contribute to these racial disparities in ACP. Considering these disparities among vulnerable populations, interventions that increase ACP among minority patients with cancer are needed. Objective: To analyze using multilevel model analysis the predictors of ACP documentation in female patients with breast cancer over 5 years in the UChicago Health System. Methods: Using the Clinical Data Research Warehouse, this study included women diagnosed with breast cancer (N=7,814) from 2016 to 2021. Descriptive statistics were performed to characterize ACP, and potential differences in ACP rates among control variables were assessed using odds ratio (OR) estimations. Significantly correlated variables were included as covariates in the multivariate analyses through a logistic regression model. The multilevel random-effects (mixed-effects) model, using restricted maximum likelihood estimation, examined the pattern of ACP documentation; in the multilevel model, level 1 modeled the changes in individual ACP documentation, and level 2 included the between-subjects effects of the predictors of documentation. Results: 13.76% of women with breast cancer filled out at least one type of ACP documentation, 4.25% filled out the Power of Attorney, 5.75% filled out the Advance Directive, and 8.92% filled out the Code Status. Increasing age and being black/African-American seem to be related to an increased likelihood of completion of at least one type of ACP documentation. While increasing BMI and outpatient services seem to be related to a decrease in the likelihood of completing at least one type of ACP documentation. Conclusion: Understanding the factors related to ACP documentation will allow us to manage them and improve their completion. These results will help to inform the development of tools to increase the integration of ACP into care, especially those that are technology-based. Further work could include designing a predictive model to prioritize patients requiring ACP. Providing knowledge about ACP in nonclinical areas can lead to increased education about ACP and its benefits to families and communities. Citation Format: Andres Mauricio Garcia Sierra, Marcia Tan. Predictors of advance care planning documentation in female patients with breast cancer: A multilevel model analysis [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 17th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2024 Sep 21-24; Los Angeles, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2024;33(9 Suppl):Abstract nr C005.

Quality of Advance Care Planning in Long-Term Care and Transfers to Hospital at the End Of Life

ObjectivesOur primary objective was to determine if more comprehensive advance care planning (ACP) documentation was associated with fewer transfers to hospital in the last year of life. Our secondary objective was to determine the impact of ACP processes and practices on hospital transfers in the last year of life. DesignRetrospective cohort study. Setting and ParticipantsLong-term care (LTC) residents in Ontario, Canada, 65 years and older who died between January 1, 2017, and May 30, 2018, and resided in a participating LTC home. MethodsWe administered a survey to directors of care at LTC homes inquiring about ACP practices. Our exposure of interest was living in a home with comprehensive ACP documentation that includes information beyond preferences for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and hospital transfer. Our primary outcome was the number of transfers to hospital in the last year of life. We fit negative binomial regression models to determine the independent effect of comprehensive ACP and other indicators of ACP quality. ResultsA total of 157 LTC homes with 6637 decedent residents were included in our study; 2942 lived in homes with comprehensive ACP documentation and 3695 had non-comprehensive ACP documents. Comprehensive documentation was not associated with fewer hospital transfers in the final year of life [incidence rat ratio (IRR), 1.00; 95% CI, 0.91–1.09]. ACP documentation update frequency, availability of ACP documents in the electronic medical record, referring to ACP documents during a health crisis, inclusion of resident values in ACP documents, and involvement of a multidisciplinary team were all associated with fewer transfers to hospital during follow-up in the last year of life. Conclusions and ImplicationsACP documents that contain information beyond preferences for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and hospital transfer had no association with transfers to hospital, but high-quality ACP practices and processes were associated with fewer transfers.

Determining awareness of and readiness for standardized nursing languages in a mid-level midwestern hospital and associated school of nursing.

The purpose of this study was to examine knowledge, attitude, and barriers toward care planning documentation practices with standardized nursing languages (SNLs) of nurses and nursing students at a midwestern healthcare system, comparing student and nurse responses. Cross-sectional surveys were given over a 2-month period with nurses and nursing students at different sites in a midwestern healthcare system, using convenience sampling. The Knowledge, Attitude, and Barriers to Using Standardized Nursing Languages and Current Practices Survey was adapted for use and re-tested for validity/reliability (Content Validity Index 0.81-1.00; Cronbach alpha=0.82-0.99) with 28 Likert scale items measuring knowledge, attitude, and barriers. Descriptive statistics, composite scores, correlations, t-tests, and multiple regression were used to analyze the concepts of the tool. 134/400 RNs responded (34%); 109/116 students responded (93.9%). Data analyses indicate adequate to superior levels of knowledge related to SNLs and NANDA International, Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC), and Nursing Outcomes Classification (NOC), collectively referred to as NNN (NANDA, NIC, & NOC), positive attitudes toward SNLs/NNN and for adopting SNLs/NNN into documentation practices, but moderate to great barriers for implementation in practice. Barriers included lack of financial resources for change, lack of mentors, and lack of mandates to use SNLs. Students scored significantly higher than nurses in attitude only. Perceptions of nurses and student nurses for current documentation indicate awareness of inadequacy in existing systems and willingness to change existing systems for standardized languages, with perceived barriers to change/implementation of SNLs. Students were more positive about SNLs than nurses. Major implications for nursing are to reevaluate electronic documentation systems and determine how to insert and easily apply SNLs in these systems, such that nursing care documentation is standardized, interoperable, effective, time-saving, and attainable.

Action plans increase advance care planning documentation and engagement among English and Spanish-speaking older adults.

Advance care planning (ACP) has been reconceptualized as a health behavior. Action plans (APs), or patient-directed mini contracts, improve behavior change. However, no prior studies have assessed whether APs can increase ACP documentation and engagement. We included English and Spanish-speaking primary care patients from San Francisco, ≥55 years of age, with ≥2 serious or chronic illnesses. Participants were in the intervention arm of the PREPAREforYOURcare.org trial and asked at baseline to choose 1 of 5 actions (e.g., choose a surrogate). At 6 months, we assessed whether participants completed their AP and if completion was associated with demographics, electronic health record (EHR) ACP documentation, and five-point ACP Engagement Survey scores. We used t-tests, chi-squared, multivariate analysis adjusted for baseline ACP and clustering by physician, and qualitative thematic analysis to explore reasons for non-completion. The mean age of 586 participants was 65 ± 10 years; 44.0% women, 45.9% Spanish-speaking, 31.4% had limited health literacy, and 43% completed an AP at 6 months; surrogate-related (47.4%), tell others about medical wishes (33.7%), ask clinicians questions (13.7%), and decide what matters most in life (5.2%). Participants with limited versus adequate health literacy were less likely to complete an AP (25.4% vs 35.9%, p = 0.01). Completing an AP was associated with greater ACP EMR documentation 49.8% vs 35.6%, p < 0.001 (adjusted odds ratio: 2.06; 95% CI [1.43-2.97]) and engagement (adjusted five-point scores [3.69; 95% CI 3.57-3.81 vs 3.10; 95% CI: 2.98-3.21], p < 0.001). Themes for non-completion included not being ready and logistical issues (e.g., surrogate deceased). Among English and Spanish-speaking older adults, creating an ACP AP resulted in greater documentation and engagement. APs may help facilitate ACP behavior change as part of effective ACP interventions. Additional support may be needed for patients with limited health literacy and those facing logistical barriers.

Improving Completion Rates, Accuracy and Online Upload of DNA CPR, Adults With Incapacity (AWI) and Hospital Anticipatory Care Plan (HACP) Documentation in Two Old Age Psychiatry Wards in NHS Fife

Improving Completion Rates, Accuracy and Online Upload of DNA CPR, Adults With Incapacity (AWI) and Hospital Anticipatory Care Plan (HACP) Documentation in Two Old Age Psychiatry Wards in NHS Fife

Improving Goal-Concordant Care in Intensive Care Unit Admissions from the Emergency Department in a Comprehensive Cancer Center

ContextAs patients approach the end of life, discussion of their treatment goals is essential to avoid unnecessary suffering and deliver care in a manner consistent with their overall values. ObjectivesImplement a multipronged approach to improve the rates of advance care planning (ACP) documentation among providers admitting patients with cancer to the intensive care unit (ICU) from the emergency department (ED). MethodsWe developed multiple interventions including the development of a best-practice advisory to alert providers when patients had previous do-not-resuscitate orders; standardization of ACP documentation; early oncologist involvement in goals-of-care conversations with patients; a survey of ED providers to identify barriers to success; and positive reinforcement strategies aimed at improving the rates of ACP documentation in patients admitted from the ED to the ICU. ResultsPrior to our interventions, only 13% of patients admitted to the ICU from the ED had ACP notes. This percentage increased to 90% by the last month of our project. ConclusionThrough our multipronged approach, we significantly improved the rates of ACP documentation among providers admitting patients from the ED to the ICU.

Systems for electronic documentation and sharing of advance care planning preferences: a scoping review

Digital approaches to support advance care planning (ACP) documentation and sharing are increasingly being used, with a lack of research to characterise their design, content, and use. This study aimed to characterise how digital approaches are being used to support ACP documentation and sharing internationally. A scoping review was performed in accordance with the JBI (formerly Joanna Briggs Institute) guidelines and the PRISMA 2020 checklist, prospectively registered on Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/xnrg3). MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, ACM Digital, IEEE Xplore and CINAHL were searched in February 2023. Only publications in English, published from 2008 onwards were considered. Eligibility criteria included a focus on ACP and electronic systems. Out of 2,393 records, 34 reports were included, predominantly from the USA (76.5%). ACP documentation is typically stored in electronic health records (EHRs) (67.6%), with a third (32.4%) enabling limited patient access. Non-standard approaches (n = 15;44.1%) were the commonest study design of included reports, with outcome measures focusing on the influence of systems on the documentation (i.e. creation, quantity, quality, frequency or timing) of ACP information (n = 23;67.6%). Digital approaches to support ACP are being implemented and researched internationally with an evidence base dominated by non-standard study designs. Future research is needed to extend outcome measurement to consider aspects of care quality and explore whether the content of existing systems aligns with aspects of care that are valued by patients.

Advance Care Planning Documentation in High-grade Glioma (P5-6.010)

Advance Care Planning Documentation in High-grade Glioma (P5-6.010)

Factors Associated With Hospital Admission in the Last Month: A Retrospective Single Center Analysis

ContextDriven by concerns about care quality, patient experience, and national metrics, health systems are increasingly focusing on identifying risk factors for patients who are hospitalized in the last month of life. ObjectiveTo evaluate patient factors associated with hospital admission in the last month (30 days). MethodsWe analyzed a retrospective cohort of 8488 patients with a primary care visit in a tertiary health system in the last year of life using a linked electronic health record and decedent dataset. We examined healthcare utilization (primary care, emergency, hospital, intensive care unit encounters) and end-of-life related outcomes (palliative care consultation, do-not-resuscitate orders, advance care planning documentation, hospice at hospital discharge, death in health system). Multivariable logistic regressions identified patient factors associated with admission in the last month. ResultsAbout 2202 (25.9%) patients had a hospital admission in the last month. Among the 1282 (15.1%) who died in a health system facility, most (1103/1282, 86.0%) were admitted to the hospital in the last month. Among patients with a hospital admission and discharged in the last month, 60.9% (686/1126) were discharged on hospice. Compared to those without these diseases, metastatic cancer, liver disease, or heart failure had the highest odds of admission in the last month (adjusted OR 2.36 95%CI 2.05–2.72; 2.28, 95%CI 1.98–2.62; and 2.17 95%CI 1.93–2.45 respectively). ConclusionsAs patients with heart or liver disease or metastatic cancer had the highest odds of admission in the last month, collaborative interventions between primary, palliative, and specialty care may improve quality of care at the end of life.

The impact of a multidisciplinary goals-of-care program on unplanned readmission rates at a comprehensive cancer center.

This study examined the 30-day unplanned readmission rate in the medical oncology population before and after the implementation of an institution-wide multicomponent interdisciplinary goals of care (myGOC) program. This retrospective study compared the 30-day unplanned readmission rates in consecutive medical patients during the pre-implementation period (May 1, 2019, to December 31, 2019) and the post-implementation period (May 1, 2020, to December 31, 2020). Secondary outcomes included 7-day unplanned readmission rates, inpatient do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders, and palliative care consults. We randomly selected a hospitalization encounter for each unique patient during each study period for statistical analysis. A multivariate analysis model was used to examine the association between 30-day unplanned readmission rates and implementation of the myGOC program. There were 7028 and 5982 unique medical patients during the pre- and post-implementation period, respectively. The overall 30-day unplanned readmission rate decreased from 24.0 to 21.3% after implementation of the myGOC program. After adjusting for covariates, the myGOC program implementation remained significantly associated with a reduction in 30-day unplanned readmission rates (OR [95% CI] 0.85 [0.77, 0.95], p = 0.003). Other factors significantly associated with a decreased likelihood of a 30-day unplanned readmission were an inpatient DNR order, advanced care planning documentation, and an emergent admission type. We also observed a significant decrease in 7-day unplanned readmission rates (OR [95% CI] 0.75 [0.64, 0.89]) after implementation of the myGOC program. The 30-day and 7-day unplanned readmission rates decreased in our hospital after implementation of a system-wide multicomponent GOC intervention.

LEADING ADVANCE CARE CONVERSATIONS: DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTERVENTION PLATFORM

Abstract The LEAD Guide (Life-Planning in Early Alzheimer’s and Other Dementias) is an advance care planning guide designed specifically for people with dementia and their care partner. It addresses changes in cognition and goals of care, including values and preferences, for end-of-life care and support across the disease continuum. The goal of using the guide is to create a shared understanding of the care recipient’s end-of-life care preferences. We developed an interactive web-based format of the LEAD Guide, an enhanced extension of the original paper guide, for a pilot behavioral intervention. The LEAD Intervention guided community-based Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) dyads (N=60 dyads; persons concerned, at risk, or with a dementia diagnosis and their care partners) through advance care planning (ACP) conversations and documentation. The intervention model included the LEAD Guide, interactive instructions, and educational material about ACP in the context of dementia. We developed the LEAD Intervention using an interactive design and beta testing process (including surveys and focus groups) with our community advisory board members. The board members included professional dementia experts, community partners, and ADRD dyads. Board members were enthusiastic about the LEAD Intervention and provided suggested revisions in three areas; technology (navigation of web-based documents, webpage design), personalization (the need to personalize emails and surveys to individual participants), and evaluation (creating simple scaled and open-text questions to obtain feedback on the intervention activities). Creating a feasible, acceptable, and efficacious intervention requires a multi-faceted approach that incorporates input from end users using community-based participatory research methods.

Nursing Care Plan Documentation Status and give Suggestions to Improve the Same

Nursing Care Plan Documentation Status and give Suggestions to Improve the Same

Electronic nursing documentation interventions to promote or improve patient safety and/or quality care in an acute setting

Research has demonstrated that the implementation of electronic nursing documentation interventions can enhance the precision and comprehensiveness of records, thereby providing a significant benefit. Electronic documentation systems help to reduce errors resulting from factors such as indecipherable handwriting, incomplete or absent documentation, and transcription errors. ‎In May 2022, a comprehensive research was conducted in CINAHL, MEDLINE, Cochrane, and Web of Science to identify relevant literature for their study. The study focuses on the use of electronic health systems in nursing, specifically in the documentation of care plans, records, reports, and charts. Individuals utilizing any given database employ the tools at their disposal to conduct searches for document abstracts and titles. This rapid review comprised one cross-sectional, one randomised control trial, two quasi-experimental, one qualitative, and one cohort study. The US, Taiwan, and Jordan each held two tests. The six trials included a medical-surgical and telemetry hospital with 446 beds, an acute care hospital with 1037 beds, a medical-surgical unit, and an urgent care clinic. The results revealed that electronic nursing documentation has improved quality of nursing.

Across race, ethnicity, and language: An intervention to improve advance care planning documentation unmasks health disparities.

Racial and ethnic minority groups are less likely to have advance directives and living wills, despite the importance of advancedcare planning (ACP) in end-of-life care. We aimed to understand the impact of an intervention to improve ACP documentation across race, ethnicity, and language on hospitalized patients at our institution. We launched an intervention to improve the rates of ACP documentation for hospitalized patients aged >75 or with advanced illness defined by the International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision codes. We analyzed ACP completion rates, preintervention, and intervention, and used interrupted time-seriesanalyses to measure the differential impact of the intervention across race, ethnicity, and language. A total of 10,220 patients met the inclusion criteria. Overall rates of ACP documentation improved from 13.9% to 43.7% in the intervention period, with a 2.47% monthly increase in ACP documentation compared to baseline (p < .001). During the intervention period, the rate of ACP documentation increased by 2.72% per month for non-Hispanic White patients (p < .001), by 1.84% per month for Latinx patients (p < .001),and by 1.9% per month for Black patients (p < .001). Differences in the intervention trends between non-Hispanic White and Latinx patients (p = .04) and Black patients (p = .04) were significant. An intervention designed to improve ACP documentation in hospitalized patients widened a disparity across race and ethnicity with Latinx and Black patients having lower rates of improvement. Our findings reinforce the need to measure the impact of quality improvement interventions on existing health disparities and to implement specific strategies to prevent worsening disparities.

Empowering nurses to increase engagement in advance care planning in a medicine transitional care unit: a best practice implementation project.

Advance care planning (ACP) communication and documentation are often inadequate, leading to care that is inconsistent with patients' preferences and moral dilemmas for family members. Nurses are patient advocates optimally positioned to initiate ACP but many feel that they lack the training and skills to navigate these conversations. The objective of this project was to increase nurses' capacity to engage in ACP. This project used the JBI audit and feedback method to implement evidence into practice. The JBI Practical Application of Clinical Evidence System and Getting Research into Practice audit tools were used to incorporate ACP into nursing workflow. Eight audit criteria were created based on a JBI evidence summary. Compliance was measured by reviewing ACP notes from electronic health records and online survey responses. A baseline audit was followed by educational presentations and development of posted materials. Three follow-up audits examined sustainability. Compliance with the best practice recommendation for nurses to engage in ACP discussions increased from 55% to 80%. There was improvement from zero ACP notes at baseline (0% compliance) to 12 ACP notes in the final audit. Of these notes, 42% included all best practice elements and 92% included patients' treatment preferences. Development of an integrative nursing education plan for ACP empowers nurses to engage in vital conversations. Informing nurses of their scope of practice, defining terms and expectations, and encouraging them to attempt and document conversations will benefit patients. Future initiatives would benefit from incorporating practical opportunities without real-life implications and providing continued support to cohorts.