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Abstract
Introduction Practical educational interventions for palliative carers are needed. Current supports frequently rely on carers travelling to a central venue to receive education. A substantial gap therefore exists around determining how high-quality relevant information can be delivered nationally, with limited cost implications, using educational methods that are acceptable to carers in palliative care. This study seeks to design and assess feasibility and acceptability of a distance-learning approach to educating carers.
Methods This is an embedded mixed-method feasibility and acceptability study. It embeds an unblinded 1-arm pilot test, with subsequent qualitative interviews which will be used to inform the assessment of the intervention's acceptability and feasibility. The theoretical framework is self-efficacy theory, whereby we seek to impact carers' beliefs in their ability to carry out and succeed in caring tasks and situations. The educational materials focused on pain and nutrition/hydration will be developed in phase 1 with former carers (n=8) providing input into the content and style of materials. The educational package privileges adult-learning styles, recognising and responding to the learner's context including their learning needs, prior knowledge and motivations for engaging in education. The materials will be tested with up to 24 current carers.
Analysis Analysis will focus on determining recruitment processes for a full-scale study, data collection procedures/completion rates, queries directed to the hospice from carers involved in the feasibility work, mode of delivery and content of the materials. The primary outcome measure is self-efficacy, with other measures focused on caregiver preparedness and caregiving tasks, consequences and needs questionnaire. Adherence to educational components will also be collected and reported.
Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval has been provided by the participating site, Calvary Healthcare, Canberra, reference 02–2016, and the Australian Catholic University. Results will be published in peer-reviewed journals, presented at conferences and a lay summary sent to participants.
Trial registration number ACTRN12616000601437; Pre-results.
- carer
- unmet needs
- Proof of concept
- EDUCATION & TRAINING (see Medical Education & Training)
This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
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Footnotes
Twitter Follow Liz Forbat at @lizforbat
Contributors LF led the design and conception of the study, with contributions from EH, KH and ML. LF wrote the first draft of the manuscript, and LF, EH, ML and KH revised it critically for important intellectual content. LF, EH, ML and KH have given final approval of the version to be published. LF, EH, ML and KH have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. LF was involved in resolving scientific and public queries.
Funding The study is funded by Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Health. The study sponsor is Australian Catholic University.
Competing interests None declared.
Ethics approval Ethical approval has been provided by the participating site, Calvary Health Care, Canberra, reference 02–2016, and the Australian Catholic University.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data sharing statement Data emerging from the study may be accessed by emailing the corresponding author. This may be subject to further ethical review requirements.