Perspectives of Nursing Home Staff in Advance Care Planning Conversations: Experiences from the APPROACHES Project

Objectives

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 – a Role offering Alzheimer's patients, Caregivers, and Healthcare providers Education and Support (APPROACHES), an embedded pragmatic clinical trial to improve ACP.

Design

Qualitative interviews regarding ACP specialists’ experiences and perceived intervention impact.

Setting and Participants

Staff of intervention-assigned nursing home facilities who completed a minimum of 10 ACP conversations with residents during APPROACHES program implementation.

Methods

Fourteen staff were interviewed. Interviews were transcribed and coded by the research team.

Results

There were 21 codes identified that were then distilled into the following 5 themes: (1) experiences with the ACP specialist program, (2) engaging in ACP conversations, (3) considerations related to dementia, (4) benefits and challenges of ACP, and (5) involvement of multiple people in the ACP process. Participant responses suggested variability in experiences with the ACP specialist program and highlighted many aspects relevant to engaging in conversations with families and residents, particularly those living with dementia. Benefits of ACP, including relationship building and increased preparedness for changes in health status, were balanced with challenges related to sensitive conversation topics and logistical difficulties in scheduling ACP discussions. ACP specialists discussed the multiple roles that others played in the ACP process.

Conclusions and Implications

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.