Perspectives of nursing home staff in advance care planning conversations: Experiences from the APPROACHES project

Perspectives of nursing home staff in advance care planning conversations: Experiences from the APPROACHES project
Journal of the American Medical Directors Association; by Kathleen T. Unroe, Hillary D. Lum, Susan E. Hickman; 9/24
Advance care planning (ACP) is considered a best practice in the nursing home setting; however, there is a lack of consistency in the training of nursing home staff and implementation of structured ACP programs. A qualitative study interviewing ACP specialists in nursing homes was conducted to understand the experience of staff engaged in Aligning Patient Preferences e a Role offering Alzheimer’s patients, Caregivers, and Healthcare providers Education and Support (APPROACHES), an embedded pragmatic clinical trial to improve ACP... Findings from this analysis provide insights into tailoring APPROACHES and other ACP programs for full-scale implementation in the nursing home setting. Nursing home staff experiences tailoring the program to fit their environments were reflective of the pragmatic nature of the ACP specialist program.