Investigating trial feasibility of music care in hospice and palliative care

Abstract

The nature of hospice and palliative care (HPC) settings necessitates supporting residents’ ever-changing needs and responding to unforeseeable situations – as such, this unpredictability has historically challenged the collection of high-quality data in such settings. Through a feedback consensus approach, this pilot study sought to determine the feasibility of implementing a clinical trial aiming to understand the impact of a recorded music care intervention on quality of life (QoL) in HPC settings. Four participants with a palliative performance scale (PPS) score of ≥ 40 were recruited. Pre-developed music care albums designed for HPC were used as an intervention for a minimum duration of 30-minutes. The Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale, Hospice Quality of Life Index, and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory were implemented to mirror a future randomised controlled trial (RCT) design but were not statistically interpreted in this pilot study. Data collectors also recorded participants’ and care providers’ perspectives. Through feedback from participants, healthcare professionals, and music care experts, the intervention duration was reduced to a minimum of 15-minutes, and the PPS inclusion criteria requirement was eliminated. The number of outcome measures was reduced from three to one to mitigate participant burnout. Finally, participants indicated that the recorded music intervention was therapeutic, therefore justifying further study of QoL outcome measures. Implementing a second pilot to validate the changes to the RCT study protocol will be a critical step in the research process, although the results of this study can be considered by researchers conducting RCTs in HPC to inform best practices.