Literature Review

Your culture isn't what you say—it's what you tolerate | part one Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN); by Chris Comeaux; 9/926 Your organization’s culture isn’t defined by the values hanging on the wall—it’s defined by the behaviors leaders allow to continue. In Part One of Your Culture Isn't What You Say—It's What You Tolerate, host Chris Comeaux sits down with Tom Foster, President of Foster Learning Corporation and author of Premeditated Culture: The Consequences of What We Tolerate, for a compelling examination of how organizational culture is actually created.  Foster challenges a common leadership assumption: culture begins with defining what an organization believes. Instead, he argues that leaders should start by identifying the specific behaviors they want to see—because beliefs, values, customs, and ultimately culture become visible through what people actually do.

Memory Care: Hospice of the Valley awarded grant to support first-of-its-kind in-home dementia program Lovin' Life, Tuscon, AZ; 9/6/26 Hospice of the Valley has been awarded a $100,000 Mercy C.A.R.E.S. Community Reinvestment Grant to support its Supportive Care for Dementia Program across Maricopa, Pinal and Pima Counties. This unique service is the only in-home program in Arizona delivering clinical and emotional care to support families caring for a loved one with any stage of dementia. Specific features of the program include in-home guidance and custom care plans from an experienced dementia team; free family caregiver education and support; low-cost in-home respite care through the RISE student engagement partnership; and 24-hour access to clinical advice and care coordination.

Celebrating Connie Fox: 96 years young and 25 years of giving backHERLIFE Magazine; by HERLIFE Magazine; 9/1/26This year, we proudly celebrate Connie Fox, our oldest active volunteer, as she turns 96 years young. Connie began volunteering with Hospice of San Joaquin in 2001, after our hospice cared for her husband. ... When asked why she continues to volunteer, Connie’s answer is simple. “The satisfaction. I’ve loved every minute of it. ... We are family. I love Hospice of San Joaquin.” The feeling is mutual. ... At 96, Connie continues to embrace life with enthusiasm. ... She firmly believes that staying involved and positive is the key to a fulfilling life.

When end-of-life becomes the beginning of new life: Application of the Society of Critical Care Medicine Clinical Practice Guidelines on Adult End-of-Life Care in the ICU to the setting of donation after circulatory deathCritical Care Explorations; by Ian M. Oppenheim, Rita N. Bakhru, Carolina B. Maciel, Katharina M. Busl, on behalf of the Donor Care Unit Network for Optimizing Recovery (DONOR) Group; 8/26The recently published Society of Critical Care Medicine Guidelines on Adult End-of-Life Care in the ICU provide a detailed and well-thought-out approach to a vital component of critical care, although they explicitly refrain from discussing how they may apply to organ donation. As representatives of the Donor Care Unit Network for Optimizing Recovery (DONOR), a group of intensivists experienced in managing donation after circulatory death (DCD), we wish to endorse equal delivery of high-quality end-of-life (EOL) care for organ donors. Although some logistical differences must be addressed, the EOL recommendations outlined in the Guidelines are still applicable to patients being evaluated for or undergoing DCD. Recent accounts of unacceptable patient care in the setting of DCD highlight a critical threat to patient welfare and public trust. Our mandate is clear: implement and audit protocols that guarantee dignity and symptom control while demonstrating that DCD remains wholly consistent with a compassionate, honorable, and fulfilling EOL.

Navigating generational shifts: strategies for sustaining organizational knowledge and future-proofing the workforce Recruit-Talent.com; 9/9/26 The modern workplace is in the midst of an unprecedented demographic transformation, driven by the mass retirement of Baby Boomers and the increasing entry of Generation Z. This confluence of generational shifts presents both significant challenges and unique opportunities for organizations globally. ...

End-of-life care behind bars: regular reviews of articles and reports on key issues in prison hospice and palliative care.End-of-Life Care Behind Bars - A Periodic Literature Search; September 2026 issue Highlights: Prison palliative care and compassionate release should be treated as interconnected rather than competing mechanisms; the constitutional crisis of end-of-life care for incarcerated individuals; prison officers matter in end-of-life care; community hospice engagement in end-of-life care in prisons; person-first language in correctional healthcare – two perspectives; critical reappraisal of policy and practice in correctional healthcare; conducting ethical health research in prisons

Health and health care access among Afghan refugee women in the United StatesJAMA Network Open; by Nazineen Kandahari, Nilufar N. Kayhani, Fareha Moulana Zada, Zahra Kayhani, Zarin Noor, Nicholas Nelson, Susan L. Ivey; 8/26Afghans are one of the world’s largest refugee populations. Afghan women face compounded health risks due to sociocultural restrictions, low literacy, forced displacement, and limited health care access, yet little is known about their experiences with health care after resettlement in the US. In this qualitative study of 23 Afghan women residing in the US who shared their experiences accessing health care, key barriers included sociocultural constraints on women’s autonomy, inadequate interpretation services, culturally insensitive health care, intergenerational stigma surrounding sexual and reproductive health knowledge and care, and mental health challenges. Structural barriers produced mistrust in and miscommunication with clinicians and led to use of home remedies. These findings suggest a need for health care interventions that are sensitive to sociocultural contexts and immigration histories to address the needs of Afghan refugee women in the US.

Everyone has a million problems until they lose their health. Then they have only one. Health is the real luxury. Stay grateful.

PHarmacist avoidance or reductions in medical costs in PALLiative care inpatient services: PHARM-PALLJournal of Palliative Medicine; by Celena Wilson, Jennifer Ku; 8/26Inpatient palliative care (PC) pharmacists have been shown to improve clinical and team outcomes. To quantify the cost avoidance (CA) associated with a full-time inpatient PC pharmacist based on clinical interventions. Conclusions: A PC pharmacist may help avoid significant health care costs, particularly in the areas of deprescribing, identifying untreated indications, and using PC expertise to make therapeutic recommendations.

Advance care planning in an urban hospital: Sustainability and growth in documenting care plans over four-yearsAmerican Journal of Hospice & Palliative Care; by Khadeja Kausar, Edward Coffield, Sampath Gopalan, Regina Tarkovsky, Sarah Egan, Robert A Press, John Marshall; 8/26Many acute care patients are admitted without advance care plans (AC-Plans) which may result in patients receiving care misaligned with their preferences. Accordingly, ACP [advance care planning] is needed within hospitals, however, implementation barriers exist. [In this study] the hospital's ACP program components included: primary palliative care, simulation-based training, and ACP and AC-Plan training and education. The percentage of patients with ACPs at discharge increased from 4.4% to 19.1% from the first to fourth program year. The odds of having an AC-Plan at discharge in years 2, three, and four were 3.44, ... 5.87, ... and 8.97 ... times higher than the odds of having one during the first program year. The growth and sustainability of the hospital's ACP program demonstrates that barriers to ACP within hospitals can be overcome and successful programs implemented.

Digital Deception: Survey Bots and the Ethics of Data IntegrityEthics & Human Research; by W Frank-Ito, LA Eldridge, J Matthews; 9/26The rapid growth of artificial intelligence and automated systems has significantly impacted digital survey-based research, particularly when recruitment is conducted via social media platforms. This case study details the erosion of data integrity in a 2025 follow-up survey, originally designed to replicate a successful 2021 study. Despite implementing increasingly sophisticated antifraud mechanisms such as CAPTCHA, IP geo-restrictions, and behavioral validation, survey bots repeatedly infiltrated the study, rendering the dataset unusable. This highlights a critical tension between broad digital accessibility and the vulnerability of online research to fraud. Moreover, the use of financial incentives to participate in research, while effective in increasing response rates, was found to amplify bot activity and raise ethical dilemmas surrounding compensation and data quality... The authors call for the urgent development of fieldwide standards, institutional support, and robust fraud prevention strategies to preserve the methodological and ethical integrity of digital research.

[UK] A policy scoping review of how ‘Hospitals at Home’ can and could support people with dementia Age & Ageing; by Anthony Zheng Wang, Anita Wong, Nathan Davies, Sevim Hodge, Elizabeth L Sampson, Victoria Vickerstaff, Kate Walters, Catherine J Evans, Mark James Rawle, Jane Ward, Simon Conroy, Bastien Genet, Claudia Cooper; 8/26People with dementia are often hospitalised due to comorbidities and superimposed delirium and have poorer outcomes in hospital compared to people without dementia, especially among under-served groups. Hospital at Home (HaH) schemes could reduce these inequalities by facilitating care in a familiar home environment that offers similar outcomes to acute hospital care with lower risks of harms. We developed three themes: (i) benefits of HaH for people with dementia, including more person-centred care and familiar treatment environments; (ii) how HaH can be inclusively designed for people with dementia, accommodating needs and mitigating concerns over digital exclusion and safety; and (iii) the critical role of family carers in enabling HaH, including potential carer burden. Future policies should drive consistent inclusive eligibility criteria and processes for ensuring continuity with primary care, dementia care as a HaH staff core competency.