Literature Review

LifeBio announces partnership with New York State Office for the Aging to capture the legacies of hospice patientsKFOL/KJUN HTV10; 5/9/24 LifeBio has launched a partnership the New York State Office for the Aging (NYSOFA) and the Association on Aging in NYS (AANYS) to rollout an innovative life story project to people in hospice care. This is the first initiative of its kind in the U.S. to be supported with funding from a state-level unit on aging. Using the LifeBio Memory app to record the voices of New Yorkers, each participating hospice patient will receive back a Life Story Book containing stories, memories and favorite photos to share with loved ones. Audio files will be saved privately and securely. LifeBio will also offer the option of journals for handwriting the stories. 

What nurses really need is better staffing: The common strategies to raise nurse morale need an updatePenn LDI - Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics; by Karen Lasater, PhD, RN, and Jane Muir, PhD, APRN; 5/10/24Pizza. Coloring books. Goody bags. They could be activities at a 5-year-old’s birthday party. But they’re not: These are many employers’ attempts to lift the morale of nurses on the frontlines of chronically understaffed organizations. What nurses really want are better working conditions so they can deliver the best care possible to their patients. As researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, we asked thousands of nurses why they are leaving their profession. Their answers are straightforward — short staffing is so rampant that the public’s health care is at risk. The playbook of corporate health care asks nurses to do much with little, but nurses aren’t willing to skimp on quality and safety. There isn’t a nursing shortage — it’s nurses’ refusal to be part of a system that puts profits before safety.

Chutes and Ladders Fierce Healthcare; by Noah Tong; 5/3/24 Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of hirings, firings and retirings throughout the industry. [Click on the title's link for this extensive list.]

Shocked at end-of-life: An educational video for hospice workers about Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillators Journal of Pain and Symptom Management; by Sarah Godfrey, MD, MPH; Christine L. Chen, MD; Melanie S. Sulistio, MD; Sharika Kumar, MD; and Kelley Newcomer, MD; 2/24 Introduction: Hundreds of thousands of patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) die yearly. Though ICD shocks can be lifesaving, they can also be severely painful. One third of ICD patients are shocked in the last day of life irrespective of DNR status. Over 97% of hospice programs admit patients with ICDs, yet only 10% have deactivation policies and less than 50% of hospice patients have their ICD deactivated. ...  Conclusion: Hospice personnel have limited knowledge about ICDs, prohibiting best care of patients with these devices at EOL. A short educational video increased knowledge and may serve as a helpful tool. Improving ICD knowledge amongst hospice personnel is essential to ensuring the unique needs of hospice patients with ICDs are met.

The power of art in palliative care InSight+, Melbourne, Australia; by Caitlin Wright; 5/6/24 ... Melbourne artist Jeffrey Kelson is known for his thought-provoking portraits, several of which have been exhibited at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum. He believes a portrait is a window into a subject’s heart and mind. However, after being diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer, it wasn’t this style of art that Mr. Kelson was drawn to. As soon as he felt well enough to return to his studio, he started work on a series of colourful collages. “At one point, my wife came into the room and commented on how bright they were and how full of life force. She was surprised that I could create pieces that were so energetic when I felt so ill. I hadn’t really thought about it. I just needed to work,” he told InSight+. ... Palliative care specialist Dr Eric Fairbank was one of Mr Kelson’s art students for several years before Mr. Kelson’s diagnosis. He said Mr Kelson’s approach to his diagnosis has confirmed his belief that the best outcomes of cancer treatment are achieved when they’re complemented by the patient’s own resources of mind, will and spirit. [Click on the title's link to view several of his paintings.]

Elara Caring, cited in death of visiting nurse Joyce Grayson, vows to contest violation McKnights Home Care; by Adam Healy; 5/3/24 The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited home health, hospice and personal care provider Elara Caring for failing to provide adequate safeguards to protect visiting nurse Joyce Grayson from workplace violence. Grayson, a licensed practical nurse, was killed last Oct. 28 while providing a home health visit for a client living in a halfway house in Willimantic, CT.  The DOL disclosed this week that its OSHA division cited New England Home Care, where Grayson worked, and Jordan Health Care Inc., which both do business as Elara Caring, with a “Willful-Serious” citation. Elara Caring faces up to $163,627 in penalties resulting from the citation. ...

Maddy Baloy had only 1 year to live after cancer diagnosis — and chose joy: 'Didn’t let anything defy her’ People; by Lizzie Hyman; 5/8/24 Even surrounded by loved ones in hospice care at her Florida home, Maddy Baloy craved adventure. “She kept saying, ‘I want to go outside and go swimming,’ ” her fiancé Louis Risher tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. It was how Baloy had approached each day from the time she was diagnosed with terminal cancer in February 2023, to the end of her life on May 2, 2024. In just over one year, the 26 year old gained the admiration and support of millions who followed her journey on TikTok as she worked her way through a 19-item bucket list of skills to learn, people to meet and places to go. “Maddy did not let anything defy her,” Risher, 27, says. “She was always just about love.”

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

Happy Mother's Day!

Oregon Death with Dignity Act access: 25 year analysisBMJ Supportive & Palliative Care; by Claud Regnard, Ana Worthington, Ilora Finlay; 5/24[UK] The number of assisted deaths in Oregon increased from 16 in 1998 to 278 in 2022. Over this time, patients’ health funding status changed from predominantly private (65%) to predominantly government support (79.5%), and there was an increase in patients feeling a burden and describing financial concerns as reasons for choosing an assisted death. There has been a reduction in the length of the physician–patient relationship from 18 weeks in 2010 to 5 weeks in 2022, and the proportion referred for psychiatric assessment remains low (1%). Data are frequently missing, particularly around complications.

The value of screening for a history of incarceration in the palliative care settingAmerican Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine; by Joseph Michael Schnitter, Joshua Hauser; 5/24In this article, we explore existing literature that highlights the unique physical, cognitive, and psychosocial challenges that formerly incarcerated patients face. We proceed to argue that palliative care providers should screen for a history of incarceration to identify and address the needs of this patient population. We also offer strategies to create a safe, welcoming environment to discuss past traumas related to these patients’ time in prison.

The role of mindfulness and resilience in Navy SEAL trainingMilitary Psychology; by Andrew Ledford, Celeste Raver Luning, Deirdre P. Dixon, Patti Miles, Scott M. Lynch; 5/24Mindfulness and resilience are thought to be essential qualities of the military’s special operations community. Both are tested daily in Special Operations Forces (SOF) assessment and selection efforts to prepare candidates to persist through grueling training and complex combat situations; but these qualities are rarely measured. While military leadership places value on the concepts of mindfulness and resilience, there is minimal empirical research examining the role that they play in the completion of training. This longitudinal study followed three classes of SEAL candidates at Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training over their six-month selection program. We estimated logit models predicting successful completion of BUD/S and specific types of failure in that training environment with indexes of mindfulness and resilience at the start of the program as predictors of completion. The results indicate that mindfulness is generally unrelated to completion, while resilience generally predicts completion.Publisher's note: A leadership-oriented article from another field (the military) that can be applied to healthcare.

Retraumatization when an adult child cares for the parent who harmed them through serious illness or the end of lifeJournal of Pain and Symptom Management; by Jaime Goldberg, Jooyoung Kong; 5/24Adult children caring for a parent who harmed them through the parent's serious illness or the end of life are at high risk for experiencing retraumatization. This session will offer trauma-informed, culturally responsive, person-centered tools and techniques hospice and palliative care professionals can use to effectively identify, assess, and intervene with this often-overlooked population of caregivers.Publisher's note: This current article summary is for an upcoming AAHPM conference workshop. The study was previously published in JPSM 5/24 here.