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Background: Advance care planning (ACP) is a reflective, deliberative, and structured process based on dialogue and free agreement between the person concerned and healthcare professionals. Argentina has no national ACP program or systematic approach for patients diagnosed with advanced chronic disease. Healthcare providers who treat these patients highlight some main obstacles in initiating the ACP process. Perceived self-efficacy is one of the main predictors of success in learning processes and promotes the acquisition of new behaviours and positive results in implementing ACP. The aim was to sensitise professionals and explore their self-efficacy for ACP before specific training. Participants and methods: This exploratory, prospective, descriptive study used the self-efficacy ACP-SEs scale already validated in Argentina. Surveyed were 236 healthcare professionals (n 125 physicians/n 111 non-physicians) before specific training courses (2019–2021). Results: Participants’ experience, training needs, and practices. Most respondents were females (43 years old). Non-physicians (n 111) were 40 nurses, 32 psychologists, 16 social workers, 15 physiotherapists, and 8 other health backgrounds. Over 50% had 5–20 years of professional and primary care experience. When comparing professions, half of the physicians increased by up to 5.23 points higher on the self-efficacy scale than non-physicians. Most participants had no personal advance directives and neither helped a relative nor a patient sign a document. Half of the participants had previously undergone training. Half of the professionals who had done ACP significantly increased their value on the scale by up to 7.5 points more than those who did not. Differences between physicians and non-physicians revealed areas of improvement involving communication skills, roles and tasks, and legal issues. Conclusions: Healthcare providers’ skills improve with experience and require training to increase self-efficacy. The following findings should encourage tailor-made training programs in the future. One of the goals of this study was to spark discussions before specific training courses and develop appropriate teaching methods based on perceived self-efficacy in Argentina. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Recognized disparities in quality of end‐of‐life care exist. Our aim was to assess the quality of care for patients dying from cancer, as perceived by bereaved relatives, within hospitals in seven European and South American countries. Materials and Methods: A postbereavement survey was conducted by post, interview, or via tablet in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, U.K., Germany, Norway, and Poland. Next of kin to cancer patients were asked to complete the international version of the Care Of the Dying Evaluation (i‐CODE) questionnaire 6–8 weeks postbereavement. Primary outcomes were (a) how frequently the deceased patient was treated with dignity and respect, and (b) how well the family member was supported in the patient's last days of life. Results: Of 1,683 potential participants, 914 i‐CODE questionnaires were completed (response rate, 54%). Approximately 94% reported the doctors treated their family member with dignity and respect "always" or "most of the time"; similar responses were given about nursing staff (94%). Additionally, 89% of participants reported they were adequately supported; this was more likely if the patient died on a specialist palliative care unit (odds ratio, 6.3; 95% confidence interval, 2.3–17.8). Although 87% of participants were told their relative was likely to die, only 63% were informed about what to expect during the dying phase. Conclusion: This is the first study assessing quality of care for dying cancer patients from the bereaved relatives' perspective across several countries on two continents. Our findings suggest many elements of good care were practiced but improvement in communication with relatives of imminently dying patients is needed. (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03566732). Implications for Practice: Previous studies have shown that bereaved relatives' views represent a valid way to assess care for dying patients in the last days of their life. The Care Of the Dying Evaluation questionnaire is a suitable tool for quality improvement work to help determine areas where care is perceived well and areas where care is perceived as lacking. Health care professionals need to sustain high quality communication into the last phase of the cancer trajectory. In particular, discussions about what to expect when someone is dying and the provision of hydration in the last days of life represent key areas for improvement. Disparities exist in the quality of end‐of‐life care. This article assesses the quality of care for dying cancer patients, as perceived by bereaved relatives, within hospitals in seven European and South American countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Progress in palliative care (PC) necessarily involves scientific development. However, research conducted in South America (SA) needs to be improved.Objectives: To develop a set of recommendations to advance PC research in SA.Methods: Eighteen international PC experts participated in a Delphi study. In round 1, items were developed (open-ended questions); in round 2, each expert scored the importance of each item (from 0 to 10); in round 3, they selected the 20 most relevant items. Throughout the rounds, the five main priority themes for research in SA were defined. In Round 3, consensus was defined as an agreement of ≥75%.Results: 60 potential suggestions for overcoming research barriers in PC were developed in round 1. Also in Round 1, 88.2% (15 of 17) of the experts agreed to define a priority research agenda. In Round 2, the 36 most relevant suggestions were defined and a new one added. Potential research priorities were investigated (open-ended). In Round 3, from the 37 items, 10 were considered the most important. Regarding research priorities, symptom control, PC in primary care, public policies, education and prognosis were defined as the most relevant.Conclusions: Potential strategies to improve scientific research on PC in SA were defined, including stimulating the formation of collaborative research networks, offering courses and workshops on research, structuring centers with infrastructure resources and trained researchers, and lobbying governmental organizations to convince about the importance of palliative care. In addition, priority research topics were identified in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Advance care planning (ACP) is not systematically performed in Argentina or Norway. We used the post-bereavement survey of the ERANet-LAC International Care Of the Dying Evaluation (CODE) project (2017-2020) to examine the proportion of relatives who were offered an ACP conversation, the proportion of those not offered it who would have wanted it and whether the outcomes differed between those offered a conversation and those not., Methods: Relatives after cancer deaths in hospitals answered the CODE questionnaire 6-8 weeks post bereavement, by post (Norway) or interview (Argentina). Two additional questions asked if the relative and patient had been invited to a conversation about wishes for the patient's remaining lifetime, and, if not invited, whether they would have wanted such a conversation. The data were analysed using mixed-effects ordinal regression models., Results: 276 participants (Argentina 98 and Norway 178) responded (56% spouses, 31% children, 68% women, age 18-80+). Fifty-six per cent had been invited, and they had significantly more positive perceptions about care and support than those not invited. Sixty-eight per cent of the participants not invited would have wanted an invitation, and they had less favourable perceptions about the care, especially concerning emotional and spiritual support., Conclusions: Relatives who had been invited to a conversation about wishes for the patient's remaining lifetime had more positive perceptions about patient care and support for the relatives in the patient's final days of life. A majority of the relatives who had not been invited to an ACP conversation would have wanted it., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)