(P27) Improving Staff Capacity to Talk About Death and Dying

Objective/Aim: As the population ages, more people will die in long-term care (LTC) homes. Yet most LTC homes do not offer structured palliative education for their staff. The purpose of this study was to evaluate two multidisciplinary educational initiatives (i.e., workshop, e-learning modules) on improving staff capacity and comfort with end-of-life communication in LTC.

Design/Methodology: We used a mixed methods design in three LTC homes in Ontario, Canada.
First, 40 LTC staff completed surveys before and after attending a 4-hour interactive workshop about communication within a palliative approach to care. After the workshop, we debriefed with staff to explore their perceptions of the workshop and suggestions for improvement. Based on these findings, we developed and piloted eight e-learning modules with 76 LTC staff. We collected qualitative data to explore the acceptability of using these modules online.

Results: Using a paired t-test we found that staff knowledge and comfort to engage in discussion with residents about death and dying improved after attending the workshop (p= < 0. 027). Staff reported that the workshop was helpful but stated that it was difficult to take the time to attend the workshop in person and suggested that using more reflection and case examples would be helpful. Also, staff found the e-learning modules to be acceptable and appreciated the holistic nature of them. However, they suggested some improvements to the user-interface and workflow components to improve the usability of them.

Conclusion/

Discussion: Both in-person workshop and e-learning modules are acceptable and can assist in improving staff comfort to engage in discussions about death and dying to better support residents living in LTC and their family/friends.