Evaluating Residents' Readiness to Elicit Advance Care Plans

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background Trainees are responsible for conducting advance care discussions but are often stressed by this role. Objective We developed an instrument to determine whether residents could identify a clinical scenario that necessitated an examination of a patient's goals and preferences as they pertain to clinical care, and subsequently measured their readiness to engage in such discussions. Methods Participants responded verbally to open-ended case presentations and completed survey items. We scored responses according to proximity to idealized answers. Results The sample consisted of 44 internal medicine residents, 12 students, 5 hospitalists, and 3 palliative care attendings, all of whom volunteered for the study and participated in standard interviews. Residents had widely varying scores (range 0–12, maximum score of 15) on the scored open response items. For eliciting values, mean score increased with training, and students, trainees, and attending physicians had mean scores of 3.7, 5.7, and 8.7, respectively (P = .01). For recommending care, mean scores were 3.0, 6.5, and 9.3, respectively (P < .001). Scores were correlated closely with increasing clinical experience and inversely with self-reported stress when conducting a goals-of-care discussion. The Kuder-Richardson Formula 20 reliability for the instrument was 0.52. Interrater reliability for sections about eliciting and recommending care were 0.64 (P < .001) and 0.50 (P < .001), respectively. The 1-week test-retest reliability was 0.91 for open response items and 0.76 for Likert responses. Conclusions A verbally administered instrument can readily and rapidly characterize a trainee's readiness to participate in advance care planning with patients.