Coaching Palliative Home Care for Family Caregivers of Heart Failure Patients

Serenity McDill* and Ubolrat Piamjariyakul, School of Nursing Office of Research and Scholarly Activities, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506

Field (Broad Category): Nursing & Public Health (Health Sciences) 

Student’s Major: Nursing Heart failure (HF) afflicts 6.5 million Americans with devastating consequences to patients and their family caregivers especially during severe symptoms in the advanced stage (NYHA III or IV). West Virginia has the highest HF death rates in the U.S. HF patients and their caregivers in rural settings lack sufficient guidance for managing HF symptoms at home. The goal of home palliative care for HF is to help patients live better by relieving major symptoms (breathlessness, fatigue, depression and/or anxiety) and improving quality of life (QoL). Palliative care can be provided along with routine HF treatment, regardless of the stage of illness. Studies show that when patients and family members are educated about the typical progression of their symptoms and in-home treatment options, patients have less depression and anxiety and are less likely to readmit to the hospital. The overall objective of this clinical trial study is to test whether the nurseled palliative home care coaching intervention (FamPALcare) will improve home health outcomes for advanced HF at the 6-month follow up. Thirty-six patient and family dyads will be randomly assigned to standard care or FamPALcare intervention group. Standard care patients receive routine HF care while, FamPALcare patients receive standard care and 5-weekly coaching sessions in managing the HF symptoms and discuss selecting HF specific treatment options based on their preferences. Outcomes include improving QoL for patients and their families and decreasing unwarranted hospitalizations, improving quality of life for patients and their families. Students have opportunity to engage in the research process. 

Funding: 

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: WVU's Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) & accompanying HONR 297-level course