NCT03170466

Primary Palliative Care in Heart Failure: A Pilot Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 30 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Pittsburgh · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 40 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Patients with advanced heart failure (HF) typically experience significant burdens that negatively impact their quality of life. Although palliative care has been shown to improve patient outcomes in other serious illnesses, insufficient data exist to support its use in HF. Furthermore, the demand for palliative care in serious illness outstrips the available supply of certified palliative care clinicians. This pilot trial will assess the feasibility and acceptability of training cardiology nurses in basic palliative care skills and their ability to deliver this care alongside usual HF management.

Detailed description

Patients with advanced heart failure (HF) suffer from significant pain, fatigue, difficulty breathing, anxiety, and depression. Palliative Care (PC) is a medical specialty designed to focus on relieving patient suffering by providing an extra layer of support on top of usual care. To date, there has been little research on the impact of PC in HF. We will conduct a randomized clinical trial to assess the feasibility, acceptability, and perceived effectiveness of training cardiology nurses in PC and administering PC to their patients. Patients will be randomized into either the usual care group or the intervention group. Usual care participants will receive their care with no alterations, and intervention participants will receive the PC intervention from their nurse on top of their usual care. Both groups will complete health-related surveys on tablet computers, via email, and/or via telephone. In the intervention group, these answers will be used to tailor the intervention to the specific patient's needs. Caregivers will also be recruited into the study, and will complete surveys similar to the patients via the aforementioned methods.

Conditions

• Heart Failure

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Primary Palliative Care	The intervention will span 4 domains: symptom management (e.g., dyspnea), psychosocial support (e.g., anxiety), advance care planning (e.g., understanding prognosis and electing a proxy) and care coordination (e.g., communication across providers).

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-10-23
• Primary completion: 2020-05-28
• Completion: 2020-08-01
• First posted: 2017-05-31
• Last updated: 2020-09-03

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States