Saturday, November 1, 2003

This presentation is part of : Addressing One Southwest Georgia Community's 'Silent Anguish'...Integrating Strategic Planning, Research, and Education to Impact EOL Care practices.

Albany-Dougherty County Collaborative to Improve End-of-Life Care...An Educational Approach to Implementing End-of-Life Partnership Initiatives

Susan A. Andresen, EdD, Human Services Technology Program, Human Services Technology Program, Darton College, Albany, GA, USA

This presentation will report on the ways in which the educational component, as outlined in our collaborative's strategic plan, was implemented. It will consider some of the challenges associated with community wide education.

An 'Education Work Group' was established to address the central goal of the project..."to educate regarding choices and alternatives, and encourage conversations about end-of-life health care decisions." The group's mandate included six critical goal-related objectives. Key concerns of the work group included not only developing educational forums for diverse stakeholder groups, but also the need for racial diversity in the planning group itself, and in the execution of its educational initiatives.

Workshops were developed for the community...and for physicians, nurses, and other health providers. Additional attempts have, and are being made to incorporate end-of-life educational content in provider education programs...Family Practice Residency, Nursing, Respiratory Therapy, Human Services, Occupational Therapy, etc., at all three area institutions of higher learning.

Educational strategies in use will be shared, as well as an evaluation of their effectiveness, and overall outcomes. The educationally relevant implications of the collaborative's research, specifically the low rate of Advance Directive use, issues in provider-patient communication effectiveness, and other findings will be outlined and explored. There is a need to persist in educating both patients/families and healthcare providers who provide end-of-life services, and to tailor the educational messages to specific population segments and racial/ethnic groups in the region.

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