Implementation of Education and Use of a Screening Tool to Assess Palliative Care Needs in the Critical Care Setting

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to measure palliative care knowledge, attitudes, perceived empowerment, and familiarity of the Supportive Palliative Care Indicators Tool (SPICT) among critical care nurses and advanced practice providers (APPs) before and after viewing a web-based educational video on an adult medicine intensive care unit (MICU). Methods: This study was a one group pre- and post- implementation assessment using a web-based educational video and electronic surveys. The population included critical care nurses and advanced practice providers (APPs). This study spanned the timeframe between January 2022 and March 2022. Results: Paired t-tests comparing pre-intervention and post-intervention results were used. There was a significant increase in familiarity with intention to use the SPICT after the intervention (p \u3c 0.001). Based on a potential range of 1-4, with higher scores reflecting more agreement, participant means increased from 2.19 (SD = 0.52) in the pre-education survey to 3.00 (SD = 0.57) in the post. There was no change in palliative care knowledge (p = 0.67), attitudes (p = 0.063) and perceived empowerment (p = 0.454) between pre-intervention and post-intervention results. However, baseline measures for these variables were already satisfactory based on pre-test findings. Conclusion: Our population is aging and requiring more critical care resources. Palliative care is an important medical service that helps patients manage chronic and acute illnesses. This project showed web-based education may be a feasible way to education bedside nurses and APPs on palliative care and screening tools