Jarred Gallegos recently submitted his PhD dissertation to West Virginia University: "A Video Decision Aid for the West Virginia POST: A Randomized, Controlled Trial."
POLST allows patients to express preferences for end-of-life medical decisions. Although POLST forms are used throughout the United States, evidence is lacking about the quality of the decision-making process of individuals completing these forms. The use of a decision aid developed for the POLST could ensure that patients completing these forms are informed, confident, and certain of their treatment decisions.
The purpose of the study was to develop and evaluate a video decision aid for the West Virginia POST. At post-intervention, participants in the intervention group were more generally more knowledgeable, less conflicted, and more satisfied with their decisions. Results provide foundational support for the use of decision aids with multi-decision end-of-life care orders, such as POLST paradigm forms.
Your description of this tool refers to patients completing POLST documents. This is an unfortunate choice of language inasmuch as a key feature of POLST (and its chief advantage over reliance on advanced directives for terminally-ill persons) is that it is a medical order created by professionals.
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