Improving residents’ skills and confidence on advance directive discussion: a quality improvement project

Background: Advance directives have been established as a legal document that ensures patients’ wishes are followed if/when they cannot make medical decisions for themselves. The concept, advance directive, is rooted in the ethical principle of patient’s autonomy. New York State recognizes three types of advance directives: New York State Health Care Proxy, Living Wills, and Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order. A common misnomer in healthcare is the idea that advance directives are for the elderly or patients with terminal illness. As per New York State statutes, everyone older than 18-years-old should have an advance directive to avoid conflicts in times of crisis. It has been shown that most patients believe it is their physician’s responsibility to initiate an advance directive discussion and residents are at the forefront of most health facilities. Objective: To assess the knowledge and attitude of internal medicine residents towards advance directive and to improve residents’ skills and confidence on advance directive discussion. Design: We carried out a prospective study to assess the knowledge and attitude of the internal medicine residents towards advance directive to validate the need to implement didactic sessions and simulations. Results: Fifty out of the 75 internal medicine residents of Harlem Hospital Center participated in the study. Most of the responders indicated that they lacked sufficient knowledge in advance directive discussion and indicated that they were interested in didactic sessions and simulations related to how to help patients with advance directives. Conclusion: Our study showed that most of the residents lacked sufficient knowledge in advance directives discussions and the importance of its incorporation into residency training education.