Literature Review

Blessing hands, healing hearts: CHP honors nurses with special ceremony Hometown Stations - ABC, FOX, NBC, CBS, Delphos, OH (WLIO); by Todd Cummins; 5/15/25 A local nonprofit agency is recognizing the dedication of its staff with a special blessing ceremony. In honor of National Nurses Week, the staff of CHP Home Care and Hospice participated in a “blessing of the hands” — a centuries-old tradition meant to honor the vital role nurses play in healing and compassion.  The idea came from Colleen Quickery, the administrator of Hearth & Home in Van Wert. Chaplain Steve Haddix said he has performed about 240 blessings for staff across Paulding and Van Wert counties, as well as the Lima and Delphos offices. This marks the first year CHP has offered the ceremony, and it has had a powerful impact on many who received it.Editor's note: Reminder that CNA Week is June 12-18, 2025.

How to put together your AI Dream Team Forbes; by Megan Poinski; 5/15/25 What are front-runners [with AI] doing differently? Accenture found they have five imperatives in common. They’re prioritizing AI innovation and growth over cost reduction—with C-suite leaders agreeing on the reasons behind it and how to measure the outcomes. They’re reinventing talent and ways of working, hiring employees who can do more with AI and upskilling existing staff, and giving them more opportunities to learn on the job by experimenting with it. They’re building an AI-enabled digital core, ensuring that their core systems and data are all designed with current and future AI use in mind. They’re using AI responsibly, focusing on governance for its use and risk assessments for both security issues and impacts on the workforce. And they’re also continuously reinventing their strategies and goals, creating a change-management framework that can shift with the way tools are employed, actual results, and changes in technology capabilities and the larger business environment.  

New standards could transform palliative care for dementia patients McKnights Long-Term Care News; by Donna Shryer; 5/15/25 An Invited Commentary published Wednesday [5/14/ in JAMA Network Open highlights vital new consensus on when to refer dementia patients to specialist palliative care. The commentary, authored by Laura J. Morrison, MD, from Yale University School of Medicine, analyzes the Delphi survey study, which established the first international agreement on palliative care referral criteria for dementia patients.The Delphi survey study, led by Yuchieh K. Chang, DO, and colleagues, brought together 63 experts from five continents who identified 15 major criteria for specialist palliative care referral, grouped into five categories: dementia type, symptom distress, psychosocial factors, comorbidities and hospital use. Each major criterion was considered sufficient on its own to warrant referral, even for patients expected to live more than two years. Additionally, the study outlined 42 minor criteria, which could be used in combination to justify a referral decision.

[Modern Healthcare] Best Places to Work in Healthcare - 2025

I held my wife's hand as she died. It was the most painful moment in my life, but also the greatest gift.Yahoo!Life; by Juan Cruz, Jr.; 4/13/25

PROFESSIONAL SELF-CARE: Becoming time rich with physician moms: Sarah Wittry [hospice] and Nicole Perrotte MarketScale - Ripple of Change; by Todd Otten; 7/30/24, posted in our newsletter on 8/11/24 In today’s high-stress healthcare environment, physician mothers face the formidable challenge of balancing demanding careers with their personal lives. The conversation on work-life balance is more relevant than ever, with more women in medicine seeking ways to manage these dual responsibilities effectively. How can physician moms navigate this landscape to reclaim time for themselves without guilt? What strategies can physician moms employ to achieve a healthier work-life balance? This pressing question lies at the heart of today’s discussion on the Ripple of Change podcast. ... Key points of discussion:

Systemic functioning of Puerto Rican families with a cancer patient: A qualitative-oriented mixed-methods studyJournal of Health Psychology; by Nicole M. Vélez Agosto; 4/25Puerto Ricans are part of marginalized communities that are impacted by health disparities, such as lifestyles, health behaviors and access to care (Simmons et al., 2011). The purpose of study was to assess systemic functioning in Puerto Rican families with a cancer patient using the Spanish translated version of the Family Genogram Interview (FGI) that measures Bowen’s four emotional processes in nuclear family and family of origin. Results suggested an acceptable reliability for the FGI-Spanish and higher presence of symptoms in a spouse or partner, symptoms in family of origin, focus on a child and emotional cutoff in family of origin. Qualitative findings suggested that main concerns for participants were related to family changes surrounding illness and familial roles, consistent with Bowen’s theory and clinical implications for designing systemic interventions for Puerto Rican families.Assistant Editor's Note: My mom, now deceased, was Puerto Rican. When my dying father was admitted to home hospice, Mom was asked if she wanted the Latino/Spanish-speaking team. She looked at me like this was an absurd question, then conveyed her confusion to the nurse. She was taken aback by the question; almost offended. My mom came to the states at age 16. She never spoke Spanish in the home as my dad was from the states and spoke only English. I commend the hospice team for asking, and not assuming, that a Puerto Rican caregiver would want a Latino team. This example serves as a reminder that culturally sensitive care is person and family-centered, not based on broad ethnic stereotypes. 

End-of-life care behind bars: A periodic literature search - May 2025Personal communication; 5/8/25Regular reviews of articles and reports on key issues in prison hospice and palliative care.

Downside risk, upside payment highlight new CMS innovation agendaModern Healthcare; by Bridget Early; 5/13/25The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is rolling out a broad new agenda for its innovation center that could lead to requirements that participants in value-based care programs to take on downside risk, the agency announced ... The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation plan prioritizes shared risk and prospective payments, streamlined quality measurement, artificial intelligence and other technologies, and Medicare Advantage payment models, Director Abe Sutton said in an interview Friday [5/9]. Notably, CMS is walking away from a goal set four years ago to have all fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries under accountable care arrangements by 2030, Sutton said. CMS provided Modern Healthcare an advance look at the new innovation center platform. ... Designing models that require providers to accept at least some downside risk could be the most consequential action stemming from the plan. Subjecting participants to potential financial losses, not just potential benefits, is key to driving cost savings and quality improvement, Sutton said.

National Alliance for Care at Home unveils new website to enhance member experience The National Alliance for Care at Home, Washington, DC; Press Release; 5/5/25 The National Alliance for Care at Home (the Alliance), the leading advocate and educator for the care at home community, is proud to announce the launch of its newly redesigned website, AllianceForCareAtHome.org. The new site reflects the Alliance’s commitment to innovation, accessibility, and delivering enhanced value to member organizations and all care at home stakeholders. ... “We’re excited to introduce our new website as a digital reflection of who we are and where the Alliance is headed,” said CEO Dr. Steve Landers. ... Key features of the new website include:

Dying ‘Beautifully’ in the Rio Grande Valley: Rivera-Burciaga embeds end-of-life nursing into UTRGV curriculum: National Nurses Week is May 6-12 UTRGV, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley - The Newsroom, Rio Grande Valley, TX; by Karen Villarreal; 5/9/25 Death, for the most part, makes people uncomfortable. But not UTRGV’s Dr. Andrya Rivera-Burciaga.  After a personal loss early in her nursing career drove her to seek advanced certification in hospice and palliative care, she has made it her life’s work to normalize conversations about death and dying.   ... While Rivera-Burciaga’s efforts successfully have woven palliative care into the UTRGV nursing curriculum, her Ph.D. research on the unique cultural perspective of death and dying among Mexican Americans aims to further tailor the care that nurses provide to end-of-life patients in South Texas.  ... Through clinical interviews, Rivera-Burciaga found that many individuals of the Mexican American culture are afraid to die – despite engaging in Día de los Muertos, a celebration of death every November. “We've built a compassionate community for the dying, yet we don't say it by name. Many Mexican Americans in the United States believe that to talk about death invites it. Or, that we don't have time to be depressed, or that even in mourning men don't cry,” she said.

Sunday newsletters focus on headlines and top read stories of the last week (in order) - enjoy!

Evaluation of required end-of-life (EOL) ethics content in the ten residency programs offering hospice and palliative medicine fellowshipAmerican Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care; by Sara W Youssef, Lauren E Berninger, Danielle J Doberman; 4/25Ethics training is essential to hospice and palliative medicine (HPM) training. Ten residencies can lead into HPM fellowship, but clinical ethics tested on board certification exams vary in content and weight across specialties. Our findings indicate that end-of-life ethics content tested on these board certification exams vary across specialties. Given this variance, standardizing end-of-life ethics training for HPM fellowship programs presents an opportunity for educational improvement.