Comfort and Knowledge Analysis of Neuro-Trauma Intensive Care Clinicians Pre/Post Education Intervention and Implementation of a Palliative Care Screening Instrument 

Purpose: The purpose of the scholarly project is to examine how an educational intervention and implementation of palliative care (PC) screening instrument impacts clinician comfort and knowledge regarding PC in the neuro-trauma intensive care (NTICU) setting in an academic health setting over the course of four weeks.

Methods: An evidence-based comfort and knowledge questionnaire was administered utilizing the Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) application software. A PC screening instrument was used to screen NTICU patients who may benefit from a PC consult following a week-long staff educational intervention. The clinicians’ demographic information were collected and reported in frequencies and percentages. The Wilcoxon signed-ranks test and Fisher’s exact test were used to analyze the clinicians’ comfort and knowledge data.

Sample and Setting: The sample (n = 8) consisted of NTICU bedside registered nurses, registered nurse (RN) case managers, and social work case managers who volunteered to participate in the study. All patients admitted to the 12-bed NTICU were eligible to be screened by these clinicians for PC.

Results: There were no statistically significant differences among pre- and post-intervention data where individual clinician comfort and knowledge questions were examined. There was no statistically significant change in nurses’ overall median knowledge scores (Z = -1.414, p = 0.500). There was, however, a statistically significant change among nurses’ overall median comfort scores (Z = -2.232, p = 0.031).

Nursing Implications: Nurses are able to screen patients for PC and communicate this need to providers for early PC referrals and consultations. A potential change in nursing comfort and knowledge regarding patients who may benefit from PC referral exists.