South Dakota Nexus: Promoting Quality Conversations about Advance Care Planning in South Dakota through Interprofessional Teams

Member Since: June 2015

Intervention: Promoting Quality Conversations about Advance Care Planning in South Dakota through Interprofessional Teams

Partners:

  • University of South Dakota
  • Peace Lutheran Church
  • South Dakota Department of Health/Comprehensive Cancer Control Program
  • South Dakota Department of Health EMS
  • Great Plains Quality Innovation Network
  • Sanford Magnet Program
  • Active Generations
  • Frontier and Rural Medicine Program (FARM)/Sanford Medicine
  • Center for Ethics and Caring
  • Avera Center for Public Policy
  • Avera Hospital
  • Rapid City Regional Health
  • Gerontology Field Specialist
  • South Dakota Life Circle: Partners Improving End-of-Life Care

Occupations represented:

  • Nursing
  • Social Work
  • Medicine
  • Clergy
  • Hospice and palliative care specialists
  • Other health sciences disciplines that integrate ACP and interprofessional education into their practice

Overview: In order to meet South Dakota’s need for a unified approach towards Advance Care Planning (ACP), the University of South Dakota’s (USD) Department of Nursing assembled an interprofessional, collaborative network of health professionals to pilot an ACP process. The ultimate goal is to implement a process statewide. The project starts by training learners in USD’s School of Health Science as “First Steps Facilitators,” based on the model pioneered by the Gunderson Respecting Choices® program. Following initial implementation of the training in Sioux Falls, ACP Facilitator training will be integrated into USD’s Health Sciences’ curriculum at USD campuses throughout the state. Trained facilitators will implement the approach to ACP at a number of intervention sites in Vermillion, South Dakota. The community was chosen because it has a hospital, a senior center, and a nursing home that already partner with USD as part of the health sciences curriculum. If the intervention has positive results, it will be scaled up to a state-wide level. A pre-post design will be used to assess the impact of the unified approach to ACP on the state.

Intervention Study Question:

How does the ACP initiative impact:

  1. Students’ attitudes and skills around interprofessional practice?
  2. Providers’ communication and collaboration in interprofessional teams?
  3. Client satisfaction, knowledge, and completion rate of Advanced Directives?
  4. Population-level health care outcomes in South Dakota?

Team Members:

  • Sabina Kupershmidt, PhD
  • Haifa AbouSamra, PhD
  • Cheryl Fischbach, MSN, RN
  • Helene Hegge, MSN, RN
  • Katie Bloom, MSW
State: 
South Dakota
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