With grant, prof aims to help cancer patients address advance care planning
Li-Ting Longcoy received $1 million grant and wants to help cancer patients
Many patients and their families avoid talking about end-of-life care, but assistant professor Li-Ting Longcoy, PhD, DrPH, RN, wants to help cancer patients address advance planning with greater resilience.
She received a roughly $1 million Pathway to Independence Award from the National Institute for Nursing Research to test an intervention that would empower patients and their families to engage in advance care planning discussions and complete advance directives.
Advance care planning is a process to facilitate decision-making for future medical care, such as choosing a power of attorney who will make medical decisions when a patient is no longer able, as well as treatment directives.
“Helping patients understand and communicate their values and goals with family caregivers can lead to care that aligns with patient wishes, reduce caregiver emotional burden and improve patient satisfaction with end-of-life care and the quality of death,” Longcoy says. “Avoidance can delay introduction of palliative and hospice care and lead to costly and aggressive goal-discordant care that also increases family caregivers’ anxiety and depression.”
Longcoy will conduct her trial with 76 patients at UI Health with advanced cancer and their families over the course of three years. Those enrolled in the intervention will complete six, web-based modules, including an introduction to advance care planning documents, identifying emotions and communication with family members to strengthen their resilience.
“I hope that after this intervention, patients are more likely to have real discussions with their family members and that they are more likely to complete advance directives,” Longcoy says.
Longcoy’s funding is via the K99/R00 Award, which consists of two phases. The Mentored Phase (K99) supports one to two years of mentored postdoctoral research training, and the Independent Research Phase (R00) is a research project grant for up to three years after the scientist secures a tenure-track faculty position.
During the K99 phase, Longcoy was mentored by Ardith Doorenbos, PhD, RN, FAAN, the Harriet H. Werley Endowed Chair for Nursing Research, and is now embarking on the R00 phase as an assistant professor.