Computer Training in End-of-Life Care for Rural Nurses' Aides

描述(申请人提供)：死亡降临到我们每个人身上。越来越多的美国人在机构中走到了生命的尽头。随着护理成本的上升，护理临终病人的设施越来越多地转向成本较低且往往未经培训的护士助手(NAS)来提供临终病人的需求。高质量的临终关怀是一项紧迫的国家优先事项。美国农村不仅有不成比例的老年人口，而且在生活的各个阶段，年龄调整后的死亡率都更高。农村社区还拥有独特的文化属性，这些属性塑造了生命末期的卫生保健体验。在第一阶段论证了以计算机为基础的培训(CBT)方案对农村临终关怀NAS进行培训的可行性后，Toborg Associate提议在第二阶段全面开发六个模块的CBT。工作人员将利用15个焦点小组和15个主要信息提供人访谈，确定农村社区对与临终病人和临终关怀有关的问题的看法和态度。在CBT完成后，工作人员将在严格设计的实验中在实验和对照条件之间随机选择NAS，并分析数据以确定公司CBT的有效性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Death comes to each of us. More and more, Americans reach the end of their lives in institutions. As the cost of nursing escalates, facilities that care for the dying increasingly turn to less expensive, and often untrained, nurses aides (NAs) to provide for the needs of the dying. Quality end-of-life care represents an urgent national priority. Rural America contains not just a disproportionate share of the nation's elderly but a higher age-adjusted rate of mortality at every stage of life. Rural communities also possess unique cultural attributes that shape the experience of health care at the end of life. Having demonstrated in Phase I the feasibility of a computer-based training (CBT) program to train rural NAs in end-of-life care, Toborg Associate proposes in Phase II to fully develop a six-module CBT. Using 15 focus groups and 15 key informant interviews, staff will define the perceptions and attitudes of NAs in rural communities to issues related to the terminally ill and care at the end-of-life. At the completion of the CBT, staff will randomize NAs between experimental and a control conditions in a rigorously designed experiment and analyze data to determine the effectiveness of the firm's CBT.