Evaluating an Advance Care Planning Curriculum: a Lecture, a Game, a Patient, and an Essay.

Curricula on advance care planning are commonly absent or inadequate in the majority of medical schools. This study assessed an advance care planning mini-curriculum involving a lecture, an end-of-life conversation game, a patient encounter during which students facilitated completion of an advance directive, and a subsequent reflective essay. This convergent, mixed methods study used a pre-post, longitudinal design. Confidence having end-of-life conversations was assessed at three timepoints. A linear mixed effects model compared mean confidence at the three timepoints. Focus groups and open-ended questionnaires (analyzed using content analysis) explored student perceptions of the curricula. Sixty-nine of 149 students completed the questionnaires; 18 students participated in the focus groups. Confidence scores increased by 10.3 points (+ 4.2 post-lecture/game; + 6.1 post-patient assignment/essay; Mixed methods data suggest that the advance care planning mini-curriculum effectively increased student confidence having end-of-life conversations. Qualitative analyses revealed student learning covering all of tiers of Bloom's taxonomy.

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© International Association of Medical Science Educators 2019.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Conflict of InterestLJV is an unpaid, scientific advisor to Common Practice, LLC, who is the creator of the game that was included in the mini-curriculum tested in this manuscript. Common Practice, LLC was not involved in the study design, implementation, analysis, or publication of this work. Dr. Green is a co-principal of Making Your Wishes Known, LLC, a company that developed an online platform for helping individuals engage in advance care planning. The original version of Making Your Wishes Known was created for research purposes and continues to be available free of charge. A second version that can be widely distributed has been developed in partnership with a private commercial enterprise, with whom Drs. Green has a consulting agreement and equity interest.