A Novel Patient Decision Aid for Surrogate Decision Makers of Comatose Survivors of Cardiac Arrest

A Novel Patient Decision Aid for Surrogate Decision Makers of Comatose Survivors of Cardiac Arrest: A Pilot Study

This study will test the feasibility and acceptability of deploying a decision aid for surrogate decision makers of comatose survivors of cardiac arrest early during hospitalization. This decision aid is to inform, educate and support decision makers charged with determining goals of care during post-cardiac arrest treatment.

Survival and neurological recovery after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest are highly variable, driven in part by inconsistent hospital care following successful resuscitation. International guidelines for post-cardiac arrest care recommend delaying neurologic prognostication until 72-hours after resuscitation because early prognostication is imprecise and may precipitate inappropriate withdrawal of life sustaining therapy (WLST). Early WLST has been observed in-post cardiac arrest care. In order to encourage better guideline concordant care, the study proposes the implementation of an educational tool to support and inform surrogate decision makers in post-cardiac arrest care and neuro-prognostication. This pilot study will test the feasibility of implementing an educational tool for surrogate decision makers, the acceptability of such an intervention and early measures of knowledge translation. This study will inform the creation of a randomized controlled trial to test the ability of the tool to encourage guideline concordant timing of post-cardiac arrest neuro-prognostication.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adult 18 years of age and older
• Identified as a surrogate decision maker for patient who is a comatose survivor of out of hospital cardiac arrest

Exclusion Criteria:

• Illiterate or poor proficiency (unable to read decision aid)
• Non-english speaking