Volume 38, Issue 3 , Pages 358-364, September 2009
Artificial Hydration Therapy for Terminally Ill Cancer Patients: A Nurse-Education Intervention
Article Outline
Abstract
The Japanese Society of Palliative Medicine has developed a clinical guideline to minimize the large variation in clinical practice of artificial hydration therapy for terminally ill cancer patients. The primary aim of this preliminary study was to explore the effects of a five-hour interactive workshop based on the guideline of nurses' knowledge, confidence, self-reported practice, and nurse-perceived usefulness. The study was designed as a pre-post anonymous questionnaire survey. The nurses attended a five-hour interactive workshop based on the guideline and were asked to complete a questionnaire before and after the workshop. The outcome measures were: nurses' knowledge (13 items; the total number of correct answers was defined as the Knowledge score), confidence in caring for terminally ill cancer patients with reduced oral intake (a single Likert-type scale from 1
=“not confident at all” to 7=“very confident”), and self-reported practice (nine items assessing the degree to which nurses think they would perform more frequently recommended practices described in the guideline after the workshop). Of the 81 nurses who participated in this workshop, we obtained consent from 76 to complete the questionnaire. The Knowledge score significantly increased after the intervention from 7.7±2.3 to 11±1.4 (P<0.001), and the Confidence score significantly increased from 3.1±1.2 to 3.8±1.1 (P<0.001). More than 80% of the nurses reported they would perform six of nine recommended practices after the workshop. The percentages of nurses who evaluated this workshop as “useful” or “very useful” were: 84% (to know the medical indications of artificial hydration therapy), 89% (to know the effects of artificial hydration therapy on patient quality of life and survival), 71% (to know the physiology of appetite loss and cancer cachexia), 83% (to know how to provide nursing care), and 91% (to know ethical principles). Based on these results, it is possible that a five-hour interactive workshop on artificial hydration therapy, based on the clinical guideline of the Japanese Society of Palliative Medicine, improves nurses' knowledge, confidence, and self-reported practices. The workshop was generally perceived as useful for nurses. Nationwide dissemination of the guideline with interactive workshop education for nurses, in combination with physicians, is a promising method for improving the clinical practice of artificial hydration therapy for terminally ill cancer patients.
Key Words: Artificial hydration therapy, nutrition, hydration, education, interactive workshop, neoplasms, guideline
Introduction
Recent literature reveals a large variation in physician practice pertaining to artificial hydration therapy for terminally ill cancer patients.1 This means that patients may suffer unnecessarily because of over- or underhydration. The establishment of a clinical guideline can contribute to patient well-being by clarifying the best practice from empirical evidence and available expert experience. In addition to several general clinical practice guidelines,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 the Japanese Society of Palliative Medicine recently published a clinical guideline for artificial hydration therapy for terminally ill cancer patients using evidence-based and formal consensus-building methods.8 The primary aim of the guideline is to help clinicians make a clinical decision about artificial hydration therapy to ensure a better quality of care for terminally ill cancer patients. The target population is adult cancer patients with incurable cancer who have inadequate oral intake refractory to appropriate palliative treatments and who are likely to die within one to two months. The targeted users are all health care professionals who treat the target population.
The guideline assumes that the determinants of quality of life and the processes of dying and death vary among individuals, and that individual assessment is essential to define what is important for each patient. Palliation of physical distress, peace of mind, having a good family relationship, not being a burden to others, completion of life, fighting against cancer, maintaining hope, and not being aware of death are good death elements that could be related to the decision-making process for artificial hydration therapy for Japanese patients.8 The guideline strongly recommends that clinicians respect patient and family values; individualize the treatment for each patient; and assess the situation comprehensively from a medical, practical, psychosocial, ethical, and legal point of view. On the basis of this conceptual framework, clinicians should first clarify the general treatment goal consistent with patient and family values. Second, clinicians should comprehensively assess the situation, especially the potential effects of artificial hydration therapy on patient physical symptoms, survival, daily activities, psycho-existential well-being, and ethical and legal issues. Third, clinicians should decide on a treatment plan after discussion with patients and families. Finally, clinicians should periodically reevaluate the treatment efficacy at planned intervals, and adjust the treatment suitable for each patient.
During this whole process, nurses play an important role in supporting the decision-making process of patients and families, providing emotional support and planning nursing assistance for artificial hydration therapy. Thus, we believe that educating nurses about artificial hydration therapy is of great importance, and a useful education program can assist in the successful implement of the guideline.
Although simple dissemination of printed guidelines has minimum effect on the actual behaviors of clinicians, an interactive workshop could contribute toward improving clinical practice.9, 10, 11, 12 As the first step of dissemination efforts to promote the guideline, the primary aim of this preliminary study was to explore the effects of a five-hour interactive workshop on nurses' knowledge, confidence, self-reported practice, and nurse-perceived usefulness of this workshop.
Methods
This study was designed as a pre-post anonymous questionnaire survey. The nurses voluntarily applied to the workshop across the country by means of announcements in palliative care specialty journals and the Internet. No inclusion criteria for participation were required. The participants were asked to complete the questionnaire before and just after the workshop. Written consent regarding voluntary participation and confidentiality was obtained, and the questionnaire was collected at the workshop.
Intervention
The workshop was based on the guideline published by the Japanese Society of Palliative Medicine. A task force prepared all materials, including the visual presentation of this workshop, and one member of the task force (T.M.) conducted the workshop. The task force consisted of 32 experts: six palliative care physicians, six surgeons, four anesthesiologists, three medical oncologists, two home care physicians, five nurses, a social worker, two bioethicists, a lawyer, and two epidemiologists. The workshop was designed to be interactive and consisted of a pretest (10 minutes), a lecture about the development process of the guideline (10 minutes), an interactive seminar about recommendations for physical symptoms (60 minutes), recommendations for psychosocial support (60 minutes), recommendations for ethical decisions (60 minutes), an interactive discussion using vignette presentations (60 minutes), free discussion as a group and individual (30 minutes), and a post-test (10 minutes). The number of participants was about 20 per workshop, and four workshops were held. The guideline and materials (in Japanese) are available from the homepage of the Japanese Society of Palliative Medicine (http://www.jspm.ne.jp/).
Measurement Instruments
Following the descriptions in the guideline,8 we developed instruments to specifically quantify nurses' knowledge, confidence, and self-reported practice about artificial hydration therapy for terminally ill cancer patients. We decided to develop a new questionnaire for this study because of a lack of existing validated measurements. To examine content validity, a multidisciplinary expert panel (two nurses and two palliative care physicians) rated the appropriateness of each item using the Delphi method, and items that achieved 8 or more on a 1–9 scale were selected. We had decided not to perform formal validity and reliability testing for each measurement instrument, because all items about knowledge and self-reported practice were driven by descriptions from the clinical guideline.
KnowledgeWe evaluated nurses' knowledge about artificial hydration therapy using 13 questions (Table 1). We defined a “Knowledge” score as the total number of correct answers (“unsure” responses were regarded as incorrect answers); thus, the “Knowledge” score ranged from 0 to 13 and a higher score indicated a higher level of knowledge.
Table 1. Knowledge About Artificial Hydration Therapy
| Questions | Before the Workshop | After the Workshop |
|---|---|---|
| % (n) | % (n) | |
| Water supplied by artificial hydration therapy is not retained efficiently in the veins when the albumin level is low or inflammation is severe. (T) | 80 (61) | 93 (71) |
| Terminally ill cancer patients require more calories than patients with early cancer, because more calories are consumed by the tumor. (F) | 68 (52) | 87 (66) |
| Ascites or pleural effusion is not aggravated in patients with a negative calculated water balance. (F) | 75 (57) | 79 (60) |
| Fluid infusion is rarely performed in certified palliative care units in Japan. (F) | 50 (38) | 89 (68) |
| Fluid infusion is the only treatment for patients with reduced oral intake because of cancer. (F) | 68 (52) | 95 (72) |
| Total parenteral nutrition often contributes to improve the quality of life of patients with a good performance status and (who are) incapable of oral nutritional intake because of gastrointestinal obstruction. (T) | 58 (44) | 80 (61) |
| Fluid infusion palliates the sensation of thirst in patients expected to die within a few weeks. (F) | 55 (42) | 95 (72) |
| If it becomes impossible to establish an IV route in a peripheral vessel, the central vein is the only available route of fluid infusion. (F) | 70 (53) | 97 (74) |
| In patients expected to die within several days, no improvement in the general well-being or survival can be obtained by fluid infusion. (T) | 64 (49) | 88 (67) |
| Ascites or pleural effusion can be aggravated in patients receiving fluid infusion of 1000mL/day or more. (T) | 71 (54) | 86 (65) |
| Total parenteral nutrition improves the survival and quality of life in lung cancer patients with adequate water intake. (F) | 38 (29) | 59 (45) |
| More than 90% of Japanese consider that “Fluid infusion is the minimum standard of care.” (F) | 16 (12) | 64 (49) |
| If hyperglycemia occurs during total parenteral nutrition for terminally ill cancer patients, the addition of insulin improves the nutritional state and controls the blood glucose level. (F) | 37 (28) | 63 (48) |
Confidence in caring for terminally ill cancer patients with reduced oral intake was evaluated on a single Likert-type scale from 1=“not confident at all” to 7=“very confident.” The question was “How confident are you in caring for terminally ill cancer patients with reduced oral intake?”
We conceptualized self-reported practice as the level of self-reported adherence to recommended clinical practice guidelines about artificial hydration therapy for terminally ill patients. Self-reported practice was evaluated by the degree to which the nurses thought they would perform recommended practices in about nine areas more or much more frequently after the workshop (Table 2). The scale, consisting of nine items, was Likert-type, ranging from 1=“would perform much less frequently” to 5=“would perform much more frequently.”
Table 2. Self-Reported Practice About Artificial Hydration Therapy
| Questions | More Frequently or Much More Frequently Perform | Unchanged |
|---|---|---|
| % (n) | % (n) | |
| I will try to explore what worries the patients may have about not being able to eat. | 89 (68) | 3.9 (3) |
| I will try to understand the patients' wishes and values concerning fluid infusion therapy. | 91 (69) | 3.9 (3) |
| I will try to explore what worries the patients' families may have about the patients not being able to eat. | 91 (69) | 3.9 (3) |
| I will observe the oral area and provide mouth care for thirst. | 93 (71) | 1.3 (1) |
| I will ask the patients themselves about pain or how comfortable they are. | 89 (68) | 3.9 (3) |
| I will modify the infusion according to the patient's lifestyle (intermittent infusion, etc.). | 82 (62) | 12 (9) |
| I will advise physicians to perform subcutaneous administration if the peripheral IV route cannot be established. | 53 (40) | 29 (22) |
| I will advise physicians to perform drug therapy that increases oral intake other than fluid infusion. | 68 (52) | 22 (17) |
| I will advise physicians to reduce the volume of fluid infusion if ascites or pleural effusion is increased. | 67 (51) | 24 (18) |
We asked the respondents to rate their overall evaluation of the usefulness of this workshop in terms of: 1) understanding the medical indications for artificial hydration therapy, 2) understanding the effects of artificial hydration therapy on patient quality of life and survival, 3) understanding the physiology of appetite loss and cancer cachexia, 4) knowing how to provide nursing care for patients, and 5) understanding ethical principles. The choices were “not useful,” “slightly not useful,” “slightly useful,” “useful,” and “very useful.”
Results
Of the 81 nurses who participated in this program, we obtained consent from 76 (94%). Their mean age was 33±7.5 years, and 71 were females. Their institutions included general hospitals (n=41), cancer centers or academic hospitals (n=13), specialized palliative care services (n=11), and outpatient clinics or home care settings (n=4). They had a mean clinical experience of 10±5.7 years, and the median number of patients who died of cancer was 20 per year. Five nurses were certified nurses (palliative care, cancer pain, or chemotherapy), and 10 nurses had graduated from a nursing university.
Knowledge
The Knowledge score significantly increased after the intervention from 7.7±2.3 to 11±1.4 (P<0.001). The items for which 80% or more nurses gave correct answers increased from one item before the workshop (7.7% of 13 items) to nine items (69%) after the workshop (Table 1).
Confidence
The Confidence score significantly increased after the intervention from 3.1±1.2 to 3.8±1.1 (P<0.001). The percentage of nurses who rated their confidence as “not confident at all” or “not confident” decreased from 34% (n=25) to 15% (n=11).
Self-Reported Practice
After the workshop, more than 80% of the nurses reported that they would more or much more frequently perform six of nine recommended practices (Table 2). The percentage of nurses who reported that they would perform three medically-related practices more or much more frequently ranged from 53% to 68%.
Overall Evaluation
The percentages of nurses who evaluated this program as “useful” or “very useful” were: 84% (n=64, to understand the medical indications for artificial hydration therapy), 89% (n=68, to understand the effects of artificial hydration therapy on patient quality of life and survival), 71% (n=54, to understand physiology of appetite loss and cancer cachexia), 83% (n=63, to understand how to provide nursing care for patients), and 91% (n=69, to understand ethical principles about hydration).
Discussion
This was a preliminary study to systematically investigate nurses' knowledge, confidence, and self-reported practice about artificial hydration therapy, and to examine the effects of educational intervention on these outcomes. The most important finding was the positive effects of this workshop on nurses' knowledge, confidence, and self-reported practice, and the generally high levels of the nurse-perceived usefulness of this workshop. In fact, after the workshop, nurses' knowledge and confidence significantly increased, and many nurses reported that they would more frequently perform the recommended practices described in the guideline. Moreover, more than 80% of the nurses evaluated the workshop useful or very useful.
As to nurses' knowledge, this study identified six areas in which nurses had generally inappropriate knowledge: availability of artificial hydration therapy in certified palliative care units, medical indication of hyperalimentation, no beneficial effect of artificial hydration therapy on alleviating the sensation of thirst, the percentage of public belief that artificial hydration therapy is the minimum standard of care, and the role of insulin for hyperglycemia in terminally ill cancer patients. This finding suggests that future educational intervention should particularly focus on these areas.
Of special note was that, despite clinical evidence that artificial hydration has no or minimum beneficial effects in alleviating the sensation of thirst and that nursing oral care is essential for symptom control in dying patients,13, 14, 15 only half of the nurses had the correct knowledge. After the workshop, however, 95% of the nurses had the correct knowledge and 93% reported that they would perform mouth care more or much more frequently. This result indicates that this educational intervention could contribute to better alleviation of thirst through improving nurses' knowledge and attention to mouth care for terminally ill cancer patients.
In addition, we believe that improvement of knowledge about the availability of artificial hydration therapy in certified palliative care units is of value. Multiple surveys have identified misconceptions about palliative care units in their availability to provide medical treatments as a significant barrier for appropriate referral.16, 17 Although many palliative care units actually provide artificial hydration therapy, a considerable number of the general public believe that patients admitted to palliative care units cannot receive artificial hydration therapy. Because the Japanese public and patients generally believe that artificial hydration therapy is the minimum standard of care,18, 19, 20 whether or not patients can receive artificial hydration therapy appears to be important in Japanese treatment settings. An educational intervention about the reality of the availability of artificial hydration therapy in certified palliative care units could thus contribute to better understanding and the introduction of palliative care units for patients in general hospitals.
As to nurses' self-reported practice, after the workshop, more than 80% of the nurses reported that they would more frequently ask about patient and family concerns and values specifically related to artificial hydration therapy, and modify administration methods according to the patient's lifestyle. This finding is, we believe, of importance and is clinically relevant because, in our previous study, major determinants of satisfaction with artificial hydration therapy include an adequate decision-making process and practical assistance to reduce disruption in daily activities.21 The clinical guideline also stresses the nurses' role in eliciting patient and family wishes and in modifying infusion methods suitable for each patient.8 This finding suggests that this workshop has a positive influence on psychosocial and nursing-practical areas of artificial hydration therapy, not only medical aspects, and could contribute to better patient outcomes.21
On the other hand, in the remaining three areas, the percentage of nurses who reported that they would perform them more frequently was relatively low, that is, 53%–68%. The interpretation of this finding is that these areas are mainly related to medical decisions, and traditional nurses are unwilling to “override” physician decisions. Nonetheless, the fact that more than half of the nurses reported that they would more frequently recommend that physicians use hypodermoclysis, pharmacological treatment for decreased oral intake and volume reduction for imminently dying patients seems be encouraging. This finding, however, strongly indicates that to disseminate this guideline, an educational intervention will be required for both nurses and physicians. Another project, the PEACE program, is now underway to provide adequate education about palliative care to physicians throughout Japan.
This study is a preliminary study, and thus, has considerable limitations. First, as this study investigated nurse-reported and short-term outcomes, actual changes in nursing practice and/or patient-oriented long-term effects should be explored in a future study. Because of the complexity of clinical practice, improved outcomes in this study should not be directly interpreted as confirmed improvement in patient outcome. Second, cultural differences, especially about the role of artificial hydration therapy in end-of-life care, might limit the generalizability of the findings to other populations. Third, potential selection bias of participants engaged in this program, no formal testing of the reliability and validity of outcome measurements, and the relatively small sample size weaken the study design. Finally, the intervention targeted nurses, not physicians, and thus, the impact on patient quality of life might be relatively small. We believe, however, that educating nurses is at least as important as for physicians, because psychological support for patients with no oral intake ability, quality mouth care to improve dry mouth, and planning a hydration method suitable for the patient's lifestyle are the nurses' chief roles and would contribute to better patient outcome.
In conclusion, this five-hour interactive workshop based on the clinical guideline of the Japanese Society of Palliative Medicine seems to improve nurses' knowledge, confidence, and self-reported practice, and was perceived as useful for nurses. Nationwide dissemination of the guideline with interactive workshop education for nurses, in combination with physicians, is promising to improve clinical practice of artificial hydration therapy for terminally ill cancer patients. A confirmatory study using a larger number of unselected samples and objective outcome measures is needed.
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PII: S0885-3924(09)00451-5
doi:10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2008.10.007
© 2009 U.S. Cancer Pain Relief Committee. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Volume 38, Issue 3 , Pages 358-364, September 2009
