Evaluating an Advanced Directive Intervention

Advanced Directive Health Promotion Plan

Advanced Directive Health Promotion Evaluation Plan

Advanced directives are an important health tool that could help preserve patient quality of life during the dying process and protect both patients and loved ones from unnecessary suffering. Hunter-Johnson (2014) describes the different elements that may constitute an advanced directive and why each could provide protection for the patient's care preferences. The intervention involves educational workshops combined with individual clinician-led assessment sessions, although it was unclear whether the intervention was based on prior research findings or what nursing theories were relevant. In addition, the content of the intervention was not mentioned, which would have been helpful for evaluating the potential effectiveness and relevance of the questions included in the survey instrument. The instrument content was adapted from surveys used by the AARP and another state agency, but it was unclear whether these survey instruments would be appropriate for not only the content of the intervention or the target population.

Other details that seemed to be missing from the evaluation plan is a survey instrument designed to gather demographic information, which could be used to control for potential confounding variables. For example, Wissow and colleagues (2004) collected gender, age, ethnicity, and levels of clinic/ED use. This information may provide valuable insight into who is most likely to create an advanced directive in response to the intervention. The time frame for the study was not mentioned or how long after the intervention the survey instrument would be presented to intervention participants. This could be relevant because some individuals exposed to the intervention may decide to create an advanced directive right away, while others may wait weeks or months before finally making the decision to put into writing their care preferences.