Patient involvement interventions for patients with kidney failure making end-of-life care decisions: a scoping review

Objective:

The objective of this review was to investigate and map empirical evidence of patient involvement interventions to support patients with kidney failure making end-of-life care decisions in kidney services.

Introduction:

Clinical guidance integrating end-of-life care within kidney failure management pathways varies. Advance care planning interventions aimed at involving patients with kidney failure in their end-of-life care planning are established in some countries. However, there is limited evidence of the other types of patient involvement interventions integrated within services to support patients with kidney failure in making decisions about their end-of-life care.

Inclusion criteria:

This scoping review included studies exploring patient involvement interventions evaluated for patients with kidney failure considering end-of-life care, their relatives, and/or health professionals in kidney services. Studies of children under the age of 18 years were excluded.

Methods:

The review was informed by JBI methodology and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Review guidelines. MEDLINE, Scopus, Embase, and CINAHL were searched for full-text studies in English, Danish, German, Norwegian, or Swedish. Two independent reviewers assessed the literature against the inclusion criteria. A relational analysis framework was used to synthesize the data extracted from the included studies, and to investigate and map different patient involvement interventions.

Results:

The search identified 1628 articles, of which 33 articles met the inclusion criteria. A total of 23 interventions were described. Interventions targeted patients (n=3); health professionals (n=8); patients and health professionals (n=5); and patients, relatives, and health professionals (n=7). Intervention components included patient resources (eg, information, patient decision aids), consultation resources (eg, advance care planning, shared decision-making), and practitioner resources (eg, communication training). Patient involvement interventions were delivered within hospital-based kidney services.

Conclusions:

The review identified several ways to support patients with kidney failure to be involved in end-of-life care decisions. Future interventions may benefit from adopting a complex intervention framework to engage multiple stakeholders in the research and design of an intervention for shared decision-making between patients with kidney failure, their relatives, and health professionals about integrating end-of-life care options into their kidney disease management pathway.