Evaluation of Implementation of ITV-Pal Program

NCT ID: NCT04900103

Last Updated: 2021-12-10

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

Get a concise snapshot of the trial, including recruitment status, study phase, enrollment targets, and key timeline milestones.

Recruitment Status

UNKNOWN

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

76 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2021-11-01

Study Completion Date

2022-12-31

Brief Summary

Review the sponsor-provided synopsis that highlights what the study is about and why it is being conducted.

How can offer support to patients and families through a volunteer caring program based on new technologies? The aim of this study is to implement and evaluate a volunteer training programme in the use of new technologies: ITV-Pal Programme to support patients facing a life-threatening illness and their families.

It will created two groups of volunteers, one group will follow the CUDECA standard training program, the other will follow the proposed intervention, ITV-Pal programme. Volunteers will be allocated randomly to each group. Second stage will consist in the implementation of the direct support to patients and families through the volunteers.

The expectation is that ITV-Pal volunteers trained will be able to increase general welfare of patients and families they care for. To test it, the quality of life of patients, families and volunteers, the quality of the dying process, and identify how new technology supports volunteer end of life care will be measure.

Detailed Description

Dive into the extended narrative that explains the scientific background, objectives, and procedures in greater depth.

The inclusion of volunteers to the Team in the care of the patient and the family is continually increasing. The requests for volunteers by the Medical Care Teams have been increasing year after year by 5%, reaching about 75 requests received in 2019. 85% of these requests are assigned a volunteer and the 15% who are not assigned is because the volunteer does not have the required profile which responds to the patient's needs. These statistics show, on the one hand, the important and irreplaceable work that volunteers offer in social support to the patient and this is perceived both by the patient and their family who decide to have it, and also by the Care Team that is aware of the benefits of "non-professional" care, which also humanises palliative care. On the other hand, the volunteer is increasingly present in our society and this is positive, so that more people offer their collaboration and this in turn "normalises" their role in palliative care.

Although volunteers contribute millions of hours of work, the review of bibliography found no sufficiently robust studies to merit inclusion, and even less when associating PC volunteering and NT. As more research is needed on the impact of training and support for palliative care volunteers, this study intends to study the state of art of technophilia and technophobia among patients, relatives, volunteers and healthcare professionals in PC, and according to the results, implement and evaluate a volunteer training programme in the use of new technology to support patients dying at home and their relatives.

The best approach to evaluate the implementation process of complex intervention is the combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. Basic quantitative measures of implementation may be combined with in-depth qualitative data to provide detailed understandings of intervention functioning on a small scale. Use quantitative methods to measure key process variables and allow testing of pre-hypothesised mechanisms of impact and contextual moderators. Use qualitative methods to capture emerging changes in implementation, experiences of the intervention and unanticipated or complex causal pathways, and to generate new theory.

Quantitative approach:

* Pragmatic cluster randomized clinical trial to test the efficacy (the unit of randomization is the volunteer and the unit of analysis is the patient/relative).
* Before-after design for satisfaction of volunteers and HPC with the intervention and its implementation to test the effectiveness.
* Cost-utility study from the perspective of the funder with a time horizon of one year. A detailed cost analysis including costs for the adaptation of volunteer standard course to ITVPal Programme as well as the recruitment and training costs of the volunteers will be performed.

Qualitative approach: interviews (individuals and groupal) with HPC, volunteers and with key informants of patients/relatives to test at the beginning the need and usefulness of NT, and also during the implementation process to test changes and experiences.

Conditions

See the medical conditions and disease areas that this research is targeting or investigating.

Palliative Care

Keywords

Explore important study keywords that can help with search, categorization, and topic discovery.

Palliative Care Volunteering New technologies

Study Design

Understand how the trial is structured, including allocation methods, masking strategies, primary purpose, and other design elements.

Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Primary Study Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

Review each arm or cohort in the study, along with the interventions and objectives associated with them.

Tech-volunteer

A complex intervention with two phases is proposed.

* First phase: volunteers new technologies training (tech-volunteering). Volunteers will be trained in the use of NT and their interconnectivity as tools to support their volunteer work. This training will be integrated into the PC volunteer training programme.
* Second phase: using the NT with patients and relatives.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

ITV-Pal

Intervention Type OTHER

Use of new technologies for volunteering

Usual volunteer

the control group will receive standard volunteer service.

Group Type NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Learn about the drugs, procedures, or behavioral strategies being tested and how they are applied within this trial.

ITV-Pal

Use of new technologies for volunteering

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

Check the participation requirements, including inclusion and exclusion rules, age limits, and whether healthy volunteers are accepted.

Inclusion Criteria

Patients/relatives:

* Over 18 years; PC patients and relatives eligible for volunteer support according to the PC team assessment.
* Acceptance to participate in the study by signing the Informed Consent.

PC Volunteers:

\- Acceptance to participate in the study by signing the Informed Consent.

Exclusion Criteria

\- No acceptance to participate in the study by signing the Informed Consent.
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sponsors

Meet the organizations funding or collaborating on the study and learn about their roles.

La Caixa Foundation

OTHER

Sponsor Role collaborator

Cudeca Hospice Foundation

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

Identify the individual or organization who holds primary responsibility for the study information submitted to regulators.

Responsibility Role SPONSOR

Locations

Explore where the study is taking place and check the recruitment status at each participating site.

Fundación CUDECA

Benalmádena, Málaga, Spain

Site Status RECRUITING

Countries

Review the countries where the study has at least one active or historical site.

Spain

Central Contacts

Reach out to these primary contacts for questions about participation or study logistics.

Pilar Barnestein-Fonseca, PhD

Role: CONTACT

Phone: +34657201115

Email: [email protected]

Facility Contacts

Find local site contact details for specific facilities participating in the trial.

Pilar Barnestein-Fonseca, PhD

Role: primary

References

Explore related publications, articles, or registry entries linked to this study.

Barnestein-Fonseca P, Vibora-Martin E, Ruiz-Torreras I, Chapinal-Bascon H, Martin-Rosello ML, Gomez-Garcia R. ITV-Pal programme: protocol of evaluation of the implementation of tech-volunteer programme in palliative care services. BMJ Open. 2023 Aug 24;13(8):e065222. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-065222.

Reference Type DERIVED
PMID: 37620277 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

Review additional registry numbers or institutional identifiers associated with this trial.

SR20-00841

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id