Literature Review

Community comes together for hospice patient’s motorcycle ride wish 29 News, Charlottesville, VA; by Gabby Womak; 12/18/25 A 41-year-old hospice patient got his wish Thursday, December 18, when Hospice of the Piedmont and Stonewall Harley-Davidson helped arrange for him to ride a motorcycle one more time. Kevin Olague, a patient with Hospice of the Piedmont, had one simple request: to feel the road again. “Even in the middle of dying, I’ve never felt so alive than when I’m on a bike,” Olague said. “I don’t know. It’s just freedom. It’s somewhere between flying a plane and skydiving. There’s just nothing like it.” Hospice of the Piedmont worked with Stonewall Harley-Davidson in Ruckersville to make the ride happen, with Olague’s loved ones watching. 

Palliative care staff attitudes toward music therapy for hospitalized adult patients American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AJHPM); by Katherine A. Carney, APRN, CNP, MS, Rachel M. Wiste, APRN, CNP, MSN, Susanne M. Cutshall, APRN, CNS, DNP, MS, Christina Wood, MA, MT-BC, Rachel C. Gentes, APRN, CNP, MSN, Brianna E. Larsen, MA, MT-BC, Nana A. Tiwaa, MAS, Amelia E. Tetlie, APRN, CNP, DNP, and Regina M. Mackey, MD; 12/18/25 ... Top reasons for music therapy (MT) referral were psychosocial support, pain and symptom management, and coping. The most common symptom-focused indications were anxiety, mood, and existential distress. A variety of factors influenced decisions to refer for MT. Most felt that at least half of their patients could benefit from MT, and nearly all rated MT as “extremely” or “very” effective for improving patients’ quality of life.Editor's Note: Visit stories about music therapy the American Music Therapy Association. For extensive uses of music therapy in hospice and bereavement care, I invite you to explore my book, Music of the Soul - Composing Life Out of Loss, published in Routledge's Series in Death, Dying and Bereavement, 2006. 

UVM hospice team holds “Honk and Wave” protest over contract negotiations NBC 5, Burlington, VT; by Yunier Martinez; 12/21/25 Nurses and supporters held a “Honk and Wave” protest Saturday along Shelburne Road to build community support for the hospice union’s ongoing contract negotiations. "We want the community to know the value of the work we do," says nurse practitioner Lindsay Gerdeman. ... A spokesperson for the hospital released the following statement: "... We value our hospice team and understand that negotiating for a first contract will take time. ..." Negotiations are set to resume in January.

Festival of Trees raises $315K for Aspirus hospice and family care Wausau Daily Herald, Wausau, WI; by Nida Tazeen; 12/20/25 The 2025 Festival of Trees raised $315,000, marking a record for the annual event, according to an announcement from the Aspirus Health Foundation. The fundraiser, held during Thanksgiving week, welcomed more than 3,800 guests to the Central Wisconsin Convention + EXPO Center in Rothschild. Attendees viewed more than 230 decorated trees, wreaths, mantels and specialty displays donated by community members, families, businesses and organizations. The decorations were featured in raffles, silent and live auctions and special events throughout the week. 

Palliative pearls: Top 3 clinical case studies and reviews in 2025 from Enclara Pharmacia Enclara Pharmacia; Press Release; 12/12/25 This year’s Palliative Pearls case studies explored a variety of topics, from basic prescribing decisions to exploring the full continuum of care. If there’s a theme to be found among the three most popular installments of 2025, it’s how much hospice prescribing and practice really differ from other areas of healthcare. ...

Artificial Intelligence at CMSCMS webpage; 12/19/25At CMS, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the power to reshape the way we use data to make decisions. Given CMS' vast data resources, we have an unprecedented opportunity to drive innovation, boost productivity, and enhance service delivery through AI. This website conveys CMS' resolve to strategically leverage AI in alignment with Federal and agency values.

LifeBridge Health taps Hopkins executive as new president and CEO The Daily Record; by Daily Record Staff; 12/17/25 Jennifer Nickoles will succeed Neil Meltzer, who is retiring after 13 years in the position, according to a news release. Nickoles joins LifeBridge from Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, where she has served as president. Her career spans nearly 30 years with Johns Hopkins Medicine in a variety of operations and leadership roles. Nickoles will assume her role on March 1. ... LifeBridge has grown into a system with five hospitals, hundreds of physician offices, more than 14,000 employees, and a wide range of programs from urgent care, hospice care, senior living and a fitness center.

December is proof that coffee and candy can fuel an entire workforce until vacation.Bonus: Christmas candy - facts and traditions for you to know

The role of doctors is changing foreverThe New Yorker; by Dhruv Khullar; 12/19/25Some patients don’t trust us. Others say they don’t need us. It’s time for us to think of ourselves not as the high priests of health care but as what we have always been: healers.Publisher's Note: This dive into political healthcare delivers something rare: perspectives that will make each individual reader both cheer and cringe in the span of a single article.

End-of-life care needs cultural humility and social justice BMJ; by Jamilla Akhter Hussain, Rekha Vijayshankar, and Mary Hodgson; 12/18/25 Death, dying, and grief are not medical events—they are profoundly social, relational, and shaped by the histories people carry into their final days. ... [A] key question is: how can end-of-life care services become more trustworthy? Too often, institutions respond with so-called cultural competency initiatives. ... What is needed is cultural humility and social justice. Cultural humility involves ongoing self-reflection and acknowledgement of bias at individual, organisational, and system levels. Palliative care must prioritise cultural humility and social justice: trust grows not through outreach alone but through shared creation of knowledge, meaning, and care—and at the end of life ...

Clarification: Dr. Byock reached out to clarify that the fee-for-service performance margins he cited are from 2020. He regrets not making that clear in the paper. He’s been made aware of recently updated figures from 2023 that reflect significantly diminished margins of 13.7% for for-profits and -1.3% for non-profits (MedPAC 12/5/25). This reflects a serious downward trend that obviously threatens non-profits hospice providers. This dangerous trend highlights the need for strenuous efforts to shift to quality-based competition, making success in the marketplace dependent on demonstrated quality of care and outcomes, particularly patient-family experience.

[Canada] Rethinking palliative care through three institutional ethnographic stories of people living with homelessness and life-limiting illnessINQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, & Financing; by Courtney R. Petruik, Katrina Milaney; 11/25Fifteen to thirty percent of Canadians have access to palliative care, with even fewer access opportunities for people with experiences of homelessness. Part of a larger study, this paper examines how health and social systems shape the need for community-based palliative and end-of-life care, using 3 stories from clients of the Community Allied Mobile Palliative Partnership (CAMPP). Findings reveal systemic demands like renewing insurance for medical equipment, restrictive housing rules, and standardized hospital protocols that overwhelm capacities of many people with experiences of homelessness. Community-based palliative teams like CAMPP fill critical gaps in mainstream services by tailoring care to complex social realities.