Development and Application of Advance Care Planning Workbooks to Facilitate Communication with Children and Adolescent Patients: A Pilot Test

PURPOSE: This study presents the process of designing workbooks for advance care planning appropriate for the Korean cultural setting and describes actual case studies. METHODS: This study focused on single inductive case studies of the utilization of an advance care planning workbook and recruited individual participants. RESULTS: The workbook for adolescents contained six sessions and the workbook for children contained seven sessions. The workbook sessions led to four major discoveries 1) considering the Korean cultural context, discussions on life and death must be held indirectly; 2) the role of the counselor as a supporter is crucial for the workbook to be effective; 3) the workbook must be accessible regardless of the seriousness of the illness; and 4) patients must be able to make their own choice between the workbook versions for children and adolescents. Six facilitating factors improved engagement 1) the role of the counselor as a supporter; 2) building trust with the patient; 3) affirming freedom of expression on topics the patient wished to avoid talking about; 4) having discussions on what private information to keep secret and to whom the information can be disclosed; 5) discovering and regularly discussing relevant topics; and 6) regular communication and information-sharing with the patient’s medical service providers. CONCLUSION: It is necessary to build on actual case studies regarding workbooks for children and adolescents in order to expand the usage of these workbooks to all relevant medical institutions in Korea.