Marie Nolan
China
School of Nursing, MSN program
Limited research data is available on how the unique cultural background of Chinese affects their end of life care decisions. In the Chinese culture, family and physicians are known to significantly influence the health care decisions of patients. However, it is unclear the extent to which patients prefer their family or physician to be involved in their health care decisions. This pilot study aims to test a Chinese version of an instrument to measure terminally ill patients’ preferences for involving their family and physician in their health care decisions. Findings from this study will allow for a cross-cultural comparison to findings from an NIH-funded study recently completed by Dr. Marie Nolan, principal investigator and Johns Hopkins faculty mentor for this study. This would be a collaborative research study between the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and the Peking Union Medical College School of Nursing. The study will employ a cross-sectional design with a sample of approximately 30 Chinese patients being treated in the Peking Union Medical College-affiliated hospital. Participating patients will have a diagnosis of advanced cancer including those with non-resectable lung cancer, stage III or IV pancreatic cancer, or stage IV liver, colon, or gastric cancer or advanced heart failure (NY Heart Association criteria, level III or IV). Patients’ preferences for involvement of their family or physician in health care decisions will be assessed via the Control Preference Scale developed by Degner, Sloan and Venkatesh (1997) and adapted by Nolan et al (2005). Knowledge from this study will assist practitioners to develop culturally-sensitive practice guidelines which would support end of life care that is respectful of the deeply-held values of the patients and families.
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Project Abstract:
