Implementation of an advance directive teaching protocol with nurses in a rural hospital

This evaluative research project utilized a quasi-experimental prospective pretest-posttest control group design to test the hypothesis that RNs and LVNs who receive individualized social support in the form of an educational and functionally supportive intervention are more likely to complete an advance directive than RNs and LVNs who do not receive individualized social support. The setting, a rural hospital, yielded the sample of 61 rural nurses (30 control, 31 experimental). The program of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, "Discovering Your Beliefs about Health Care Choices," provided the intervention. Descriptive and inferential statistics and measures of central tendency were used for data analysis. Chi square, used to test the hypothesis, indicated a significant difference between the two groups (X$\backslash sp2$ = 9.973, df = 1, p =.002). RNs and LVNs receiving individualized social support (i.e., educational functionally supportive intervention) were more likely to complete an advance directive than nurses not receiving individualized social support.