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Chaplain Family Project Trial (CFP-RCT)

Indiana University logo

Indiana University

Status

Completed

Conditions

Satisfaction
PTSD
Communication
Depression
Anxiety

Treatments

Behavioral: Spiritual Care Assessment and Intervention (SCAI) framework

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT03702634
1806775750

Details and patient eligibility

About

Our research team has designed a chaplain delivered intervention focused on surrogate decision makers for hospitalized adults in the ICU. In this study, surrogates will complete an enrollment interview with research staff, including the completion of anxiety screening (GAD-7). Based on their score the surrogate will be put into one of two groups, and then randomized to either the control or intervention group. Control group members will receive usual care, while intervention group members will meet with our study chaplain, who will provide the SCAI (Spiritual Care Assessment and Intervention) framework.

Full description

Unmet spiritual needs may have at least two negative consequences for surrogates. First, they may have high levels of spiritual distress, an important aspect of the surrogate's well-being. Second, surrogates include their religious and spiritual beliefs when making serious medical decisions . Therefore unmet spiritual needs may have a negative effect on the surrogate's ability to make good decisions for the patient, especially when facing extremely distressful decisions such as whether to continue life sustaining treatment or enroll in hospice.

The specific aims of this proposed study are:

  1. To determine the effect of the spiritual care intervention on psychological well-being for family surrogates at 3 months post discharge, including anxiety (primary outcome: GAD-7), depression (PHQ-9), Posttraumatic stress (IES-R), and overall distress.
  2. To determine the effect of the spiritual care intervention on spiritual well-being for family surrogates, (FACIT-SP- non-illness) and on religious coping (Brief RCOPE positive and negative).
  3. To determine the effects of the spiritual care intervention on other aspects of the surrogates' experience, including satisfaction with spiritual care (Patient Satisfaction Instrument--Chaplaincy) communication (FICS), overall satisfaction with the hospital stay (Picker single item) and decision conflict (DCS).
  4. To determine the effect of the intervention on treatment at the end of life (life sustaining treatments and hospice utilization) for patients who die in the hospital.
  5. To determine differences in outcomes between the intervention group, who will receive our intervention, and the control group, who will receive the usual care provided by the hospital chaplaincy service.

Enrollment

192 patients

Sex

All

Ages

18+ years old

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Cognitive Requirements

  1. Patient is not decisional due to:

    • Intubation (other than surgery- see exclusion criteria below)
    • Sedation
    • Unresponsive
    • otherwise unable to communicate (AMS, dementia, delirium, etc.)

    Decision Support Requirements

  2. Patient has a qualified surrogate decision maker

Exclusion criteria

  • Intubated for surgery and expected to be extubated within 24 hours
  • Imminently dying as evidenced by patient notes
  • Patient and/or family have a care contract or other restriction due to complicated or volatile situation
  • Patient is a prisoner
  • Patient is being followed by Adult Protective Services (APS)
  • Patient meets cognitive criteria but does not have a qualified surrogate decision maker

Trial design

Primary purpose

Supportive Care

Allocation

Randomized

Interventional model

Parallel Assignment

Masking

Single Blind

192 participants in 2 patient groups

Control (Usual Care)
No Intervention group
Description:
Surrogate will receive usual care in the hospital, which could include visits from the unit chaplain or other staff from the spiritual care department.
Intervention
Experimental group
Description:
Spiritual Care Assessment and Intervention (SCAI) framework
Treatment:
Behavioral: Spiritual Care Assessment and Intervention (SCAI) framework

Trial contacts and locations

2

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Data sourced from clinicaltrials.gov

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