BHCRI Advance Care Planning
Emerging Professional Discovery Award
In 2014, Robin received the "Emerging Professional Discovery Award"; her work is described starting at 2.35 minutes on the Discovery award video.
BHCRI Advance Care Planning
Project Title
Educating Nova Scotia physicians to initiate and engage in advance care planning for cancer patients: a mixed methods study
Time Period and Funding
2014-2016, Ivor Hamilton Cancer Care and Education Award from the Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute (BHCRI), $39,715
Principal Investigator
Co-investigators
Grace Johnston, Geoff Porter, Paul McIntyre, David Henderson, Anne Frances d’Intino, Joan Sargeant, Fred Burge, and Cynthia Kendall
Project Staff
Terrilyn Chaisson for curricular review
Lindsay Grant-Nunn for interviews
Objectives:
- Identify how physicians are currently trained in advance care planning (ACP)
- Understand patients’ and families’ views of ACP and what they need from their physicians during the process
- Develop and evaluate an interactive workshop for physicians on ACP
Methods
Phase 1 is a curricular review of undergraduate medical education, post-graduate medical education, and continuing professional development at Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Medicine and interviews with 8-10 cancer patients who are suitable candidates for ACP and 8-10 family members of patients with advanced cancer.
Phase 2 is the development of an ACP interactive educational workshop, informed by Phase 1 findings and the most current available best-practice physician education.
Phase 3 is the piloting and evaluation of the educational workshop: participants’ acceptability, satisfaction, confidence, outcome expectancies, and recommendations.
Outputs
The main outcome will be an educational resource for physicians on ACP.