Question Answered step-by-step Instructions: Review the abbreviated description of the study… Instructions:Review the abbreviated description of the study assigned to your group and answer the following two questions:1. Why would a mixed methods approach be appropriate for the study?2. Which specific mixed methods design would you choose, and why?STUDY 4: Exploring the Quality of Dying of Patients with COPD in the ICUBackground: Among the highest users of ICUs at the end of life (EOL) are individuals with chronic illness, many of whom have been diagnosed with COPD. As the fastest growing disease in advanced economies, COPD has been labelled as an epidemic that may affect up to 600 million people worldwide. The management and negotiation of EOL care for individuals with advanced respiratory disease are anticipated to become increasingly important as a result. While there is widespread agreement that improving the quality EOL care for all patients in the ICU is a high priority, people with advanced COPD represent a unique and vulnerable subpopulation whose specific EOL care needs may be unrecognized in the critical care setting. They are also a complex population, with psychological, pathophysiological and care trajectory factors complicating the provision of quality EOL care. To optimize this care, a better understanding of the quality of dying and death experienced by individuals with COPD is critical.Study Aim: The purpose of this study was to examine clinician perspectives on the quality of dying of COPD patients in the critical care setting.Data Sources and Collection: This study took place in the three ICUs located in a Western Canadian city with a population of approximately 250 000. Of the 1600 admissions to these ICU units in 2005, approximately 240 patients were admitted with a diagnosis of COPD. Data collection for this study involved qualitative focus group and individual interviews and the completion of the Quality of Dying and Death Survey (QDDS). Three focus groups provided data describing the EOL care provided to patients with COPD dying in the intensive care unit (ICU). Nurses caring for patients who died in the ICU completed the QDDS rating the quality of dying for 103 patients. The focus groups used open-ended questions in which providers were asked to describe their experiences of providing EOL care to COPD patients in the ICU setting and to describe the challenges and opportunities in caring for dying patients with COPD The QODD asked about six domains regarding symptoms and care. For each item on the QODD, the nurse rated the quality of the experience on a scale from 0 to 10, with a score of 0 meaning a ‘terrible experience’ and 10 meaning an ‘almost perfect experience’. The QODD has been successfully used with nurses as proxy respondents and is considered to be a feasible method of assessing the quality of dying. Qualitative data allowed for in-depth explication of survey results, including identification of aspects of care that were responsible for low/high ratings. Anonymity was maintained for survey respondents, thus responses could not be linked to focus group data. Health Science Science Nursing HTHSCI 4NR3 Share QuestionEmailCopy link Comments (0)