Effect of a Multimedia Patient Decision Aid to Supplement the Informed Consent Process of a Peripherally Inserted Central Venous Catheter Procedure: Pre-Post Quasi-Experimental Study

BACKGROUND: Informed consent is a complex process to help patients engage in care processes and reach the best treatment decisions. There are many limitations to the conventional consent process that is based on oral discussion of information related to treatment procedures by the health care provider. A conclusive body of research supports the effectiveness of multimedia patient decision aids (PtDAs) in the consent process in terms of patient satisfaction, increased knowledge about the procedure, reduced anxiety level, and higher engagement in the decision making. Little information is available about the effectiveness of multimedia PtDAs in the consent process of invasive therapeutic procedures such as the peripherally inserted central venous catheter (PICC). OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a multimedia PtDA in supplementing the consent process of the PICC for patients in 10 acute and intensive care units in terms of knowledge recall, knowledge retention, satisfaction with the consent process, and satisfaction with the PICC multimedia PtDA. METHODS: This pre-post quasi-experimental study included 130 patients for whom a PICC was ordered. Patients in the control group (n=65) received the conventional consent process for the PICC, while those in the intervention group (n=65) received the multimedia PtDA to support the consent process of a PICC. All patients were surveyed for knowledge recall and retention about the procedure and satisfaction with the consent process. Patients in the intervention group were also surveyed for their satisfaction with the multimedia PtDA. RESULTS: Compared with the control group, patients in the intervention group scored around 2 points higher on knowledge recall (t(125)=4.9, P<.001) and knowledge retention (t(126)=4.8, P<.001). All patients in the intervention group were highly satisfied with the multimedia PtDA, with a mean score of >4.5 out of 5 on all items. Items with the highest mean scores were related to the effect of the multimedia PtDA on knowledge retention (mean 4.9 [SD 0.2]), patient readiness to learn (mean 4.8 [SD 0.5]), complete understanding of the procedure-related complications (mean 4.8 [SD 0.4]), and patient role in maintaining the safety of the PICC (mean 4.8 [SD 0.5]). Patients in the two groups were highly satisfied with the consent process. However, 15% (10/65) patients in the control group reported that the following information was omitted from the discussion: patient and provider roles in the safety of the PICC, other treatment options, and common side effects. Furthermore, 2 patients commented that they were not ready to engage in the discussion. CONCLUSIONS: The multimedia PtDA is an effective standardized, structured, self-paced learning tool to supplement the consent process of the PICC and improve patient satisfaction with the process, knowledge recall, and knowledge retention.