Development and Effectiveness of an End-of-Life Care Program for Faculty in the Critical Care Field: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Abstract

In Japan, end-of-life care education in the critical care field is still insufficient. Therefore, this study developed and verified the effectiveness of an end-of-life care program for faculty in the critical care field in Japan through a randomized controlled trial. The study was implemented from September 2016 to March 2017. Participants were 82 college teaching staff and nurses working in the critical care field. Six months after the program, data of 37 members (84.1%) of the intervention and 39 members (84.8%) [corrected] of the control group were analyzed. The results demonstrated that the primary end point-"confidence in teaching" 6 months after program completion-differed significantly between the 2 groups (2.5 [0.69] in the intervention group vs 1.8 [0.46] in the control group, P < .001). It is suggested that attending this program will give faculty in the field of critical care continued confidence in their end-of-life care teaching, as well as allow them to implement end-of-life care teaching in their field.