Advance Care Planning in Rural Montana: Exploring the Nurse's Role

It is recommended that advance care planning take place across the lifespan. Rural populations have a heightened risk for poor quality and high cost of end-of-life care. A doctoral project was completed to assess rural nurses' knowledge, attitudes, and experiences with advance directives using the Knowledge, Attitudinal, and Experimental Surveys on Advance Directives. Descriptive statistics were used for analysis. Participants were nurses who practice in rural settings (N = 22). The average age was 46.4 years; all were white (n = 22), and the majority were baccalaureate prepared (n = 12). Practice settings were primarily in home care and hospice. Knowledge scores on advance directives were low (57%). Nurses felt confident in counseling and initiating discussions with patients and families. Less than one-half of the nurses reported they feel part of the advance care planning team. The majority reported advance directive resources and mentorship of younger nurses would be beneficial and indicated the need for additional education, training, knowledge, time, and support to better assist with advance care planning. Project results and recommendations were presented to the participating health care organization. Recommendations included workplace education, support, mentorship, resources, and education on cultural sensitivity using the rural nursing theory.