A Web-Based Education Program About Primary Palliative Care for Heart Failure: A Study Protocol of Wait-Listed Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: The number of patients with heart failure (HF) is rapidly increasing as palliative care is being integrated into HF management and the need for a nursing workforce to meet these demands grows. To address this, we have developed a Web-based educational program on primary palliative care for HF among general registered nurses caring for patients with HF in Japan.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the program's effectiveness on nurse-reported palliative care practice, difficulty, and knowledge.

Methods: In this open-label, individual-level, wait-listed randomized controlled trial, 150 Japanese general registered nurses, with experience in caring for patients with HF and clinical ladder level ≥ 2 in inpatient, outpatient, and home-visiting care settings, will be randomly divided (1:1 ratio) into a Web-based educational program group and a wait-list control group. The follow-up period is 6 months after the intervention. The primary outcome is the nurse-reported practice score in primary palliative care, and the secondary outcomes are the nurse-reported difficulties score and knowledge score.

Conclusions and clinical implications: We herein describe the study protocol of a wait-listed randomized controlled trial regarding a Web-based educational program, which is a novel approach for these nurses. If the results of this study support our hypothesis, they could help expand primary palliative care, including daily nursing practices, such as symptom management and interdisciplinary collaboration, in the field of cardiovascular nursing.