Literature Review

NY’s MAiD law: updates that medical providers and facilities should know JD Supra; by Rivkin Radler, LLD - Attorneys at Law; 7/31/26As discussed in our prior publication, Medical Aid in Dying Is Now Legal in NY, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act (MAID) on February 6, 2026. Since then, the New York State Department of Health (DOH) has issued a form (DOH-5847) for patients to request MAID, frequently asked questions (FAQs), educational materials, guidance, and proposed reporting regulations. Together, these materials provide important directions for providers and facilities as they prepare for the law’s August 5, 2026, effective date.

One clinician, every conversation: Palliative care delivery by solo APRN hospitalists in Critical Access HospitalsJournal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing; by Melissa Skoff; 7/26Advanced practice registered nurses (APRN) who practice as solo hospitalists in critical access hospitals are often underrecognized in their role in providing palliative and end-of-life care. This article describes the full scope of the solo APRN hospitalist in a critical access hospital setting with close attention to how complex patient demands contribute to the challenges in providing high-quality end-of-life communications. This article examines clinical, educational, and ethical dimensions of this work, and presents a case example that illustrates how these pressures present during a shift. Strategies to strengthen rural palliative care capacity are discussed, including tele-palliative care, remote ethics support, and APRN-centered education. As rural workforce shortages persist and continue to rise, alongside rising patient acuity, naming and addressing these structural gaps is essential in improving quality of care and protecting the well-being of a solo APRN hospitalist.

In the near future, AI is gonna tell a woman that she is wrong and to calm down... And that, my friends, will be the end of AI!

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

"Ask us anything": A framework for understanding bereaved children's questions about illness, dying, and griefPalliative Care & Social Practice; by Ceilidh Eaton Russell, Liana Bailey, Ashwini Pugazhendhi, Karleigh Sutton, Sandra Twiner Ross, Joanna Humphreys; 7/26Grieving children may wonder about questions of illness, dying, and death as they navigate the death of, or grief for, someone who matters to them. Parents and caregivers, as well as health and psychosocial clinicians frequently report feeling uncertain and unprepared to engage in these conversations even if they are aware of their helpfulness. Interested in examining the questions bereaved children wonder about, this study analyzed 710 anonymous questions submitted by children aged 5-17 during Ask Us Anything sessions at a bereavement camp in Ontario, Canada between 2009 and 2024. Question focuses (i.e., what it says about the core topic) spanned across: Body, Condition, Dying and Death, Grief, while question functions (i.e., what it says about what the person seeks to understand about the topic) spanned: How it Works, Catch, Cause, Cure, Care, Connect. Children's questions can be helpful windows into what their grief experiences are like and what their emotional, existential, and/or informational needs are within this experience.

Aging and end-of-life care planning among transgender and nonbinary individuals: A systematic reviewLGBT Health; by Ginger H Kwak, G Nic Rider, Emily A Paine, Walter O Bockting, Steven A John; 7/26The objective of this review was to identify perceptions of end-of-life (EOL) care needs among transgender and nonbinary (TNB) individuals. We identified five major themes during thematic analysis: fear of discrimination in long-term care facilities, fear of loss of independence, maintaining social circles with aging, obstacles to EOL logistics, and what defines successful aging. Additional subthemes included fear about loss of identity, preference for euthanasia versus loss of identity, participation in EOL planning, and advance care plan/will completion. Psychosocial aspects were the most substantial barriers to successful EOL planning.

"It felt like throwing in the towel": Family caregiver perspectives on end-of-life decision making in chronic obstructive pulmonary diseaseJournal of Palliative Medicine; by Natalia Smirnova, Tivona Batieste, Sarah H Cross, Samir Jamdar, Catherine S Peterson, Camille P Vaughan, Dio Kavalieratos; 7/26Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has an unpredictable trajectory and high symptom burden, complicating end-of-life (EOL) decisions around place of death and hospice use. We conducted semi-structured interviews with bereaved caregivers of people with COPD who received pulmonary care at a U.S. academic center and died within 12 months. Fifty-six percent of decedents received hospice; 33% died at home. Caregivers described five themes: missed prognostic cues and poor communication; hospice as both loss and relief; home as ideal but hospital as default; financial influences on decisions; and mismatch between hospice and COPD needs. Caregivers identified a readiness gap driven by prognostic uncertainty, communication challenges, and financial constraints.

[Greece] Patient-reported outcome measures in palliative care: A systematic review to inform health policy and health system performanceHealth Policy; by Maria Katharaki, Christos Triantafyllou, Julie Ling, Joao Breda; 7/26Health systems increasingly recognise palliative care as an essential component of universal health coverage. Assessing palliative care quality and value remains challenging, as key outcomes are often missed by routine indicators. Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) can address this gap, but their use remains fragmented. Seventy studies were included. The most commonly used PROMs were the Integrated Palliative Care Outcome Scale (IPOS), Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS), and the EORTC QLQ-C15-PAL instrument. Implementation challenges included patient frailty, workload and time constraints, limited standardisation, and poor integration into clinical workflows and health information systems.

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”  ~Fred Rogers

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross at 100: a legacy that changed how the world faces deathe-hospice; by Ken Ross and Stephen Connor; 7/13/26 On July 8, the world marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, the Swiss American psychiatrist whose work helped transform how clinicians, families, faith communities, and societies understand death, dying, grief, and compassionate care. Born in Zurich in 1926, Kübler-Ross entered medicine at a time when dying patients were often kept at the margins of care—physically present in hospitals, yet too often emotionally abandoned. She challenged that silence with a simple but radical act: she listened. Sitting at the bedside of people facing the end of life, she heard their fears, hopes, anger, questions, and need for honesty. In doing so, she insisted that dying people were not medical failures, but human beings with voices, wisdom, and dignity. Her landmark 1969 book, On Death and Dying, grew from interviews with seriously ill patients and introduced a language that reshaped modern conversations about loss.