Literature Review

The HAP Foundation conducts research study on Black Americans’ experience with serious illness care in ChicagoThe HAP Foundation, by Rachel French; 4/9/24 The HAP Foundation and NORC at the University of Chicago have completed a joint research project to understand the knowledge, attitudes, and experiences of Black Americans around serious illness care in Chicago. Through a community-based participatory research design, narratives from Black individuals living in Chicago were captured by focus groups and in-depth interviews. “Community-Based Study: Prioritizing Dignity and Respect in End-of-Life Care for Black Chicagoans” is being distributed widely to health care providers and the community to encourage conversations and create change in behavioral patterns during end-of-life care.Editor's Note: Click here for this downloadable, 17 page booklet.

Today is National Healthcare Decisions Day.Are your advance directives in place? When did you last update them? Have you communicated your decisions with those involved? Use and share these resources with your employees and volunteers.

Volunteers make best days possible for 600 people a day at VNA Hospice NWIGreatNews.Life, Valparaiso, IN; 5/19/24VNA Hospice NWI serves over 600 people a day. From Hospice and Palliative Care, Grief Support services for adults and children to the Medical Guardian help button and a Meals on Wheels program, the impact of VNA services around the region is tremendous. The VNA staff work tirelessly to ensure these essential services are available each day – but they can’t do it alone. Their team relies on an army of volunteers, who do everything from stuffing envelopes and labeling meal bags, to working directly with hospice patients and bereaved children, and delivering the meals. Maria Galka, Director of Development for VNA Hospice, said that the organization’s volunteers outnumber its staff by about five to one. Editor's Note: April's Volunteer Appreciation Month is still underway. Learn from this superb article, posted on an online community site. VNA Hospice NWI's astonishing volunteer program bears repeating: "... the organization’s volunteers outnumber its staff by about five to one."

The best portion of a good person's life are the little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love. ~adapted from William Wordsworth

Journal of Religion & Health Issues Research Articles in April 2024 Edition Targeted News Service posts list of titles; 4/18/24; Journal published by SpringerThe Journal of Religion and Health, a journal that says it explores modes of religious and spiritual thought with emphasis on their relevance to current medical and psychological research, published research articles on the following topics in its April 2024 edition (Vol. 63, Issue 2): [Click on the title's link]Classification/Subject: Religion (96%), Muslims & Islam (92%), Suicide (91%), Assisted Suicide (90%), Death & Dying (90%), Diseases & Disorders (90%), Ethics (90%), Medicine & Health (90%), Psychology (90%), Research Reports (90%), Cancer (89%), Novels & Short Stories (89%), Associations & Organizations (87%), Indigenous Peoples (79%), Adolescents & Teens (78%), Alternative Medicine (78%), Bioethics (78%), Health Care Professionals (78%), ...Editor's Note: Click here for access to the journal.

Value of a multidisciplinary geriatric oncology committee on patient care in a community-based, academic cancer centerJournal of Geriatric Oncology, by Gurbani Singh, Lena Morant, McKenzie Bedra, Jennifer Emel, Kelly Harris, Yudhishtra Markan, Christopher de Borja, Monica Tong, Patrice Downs, Cherif Boutros; 5/24The present study demonstrates the profound impact that the complexities in health status and frailty among older individuals can have during cancer management. The Geriatric Oncology Program at the University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center maximized treatment outcomes for older adults through the provision of standard oncologic care therapies and optimization services, while also minimizing unnecessary interventions on an individual patient-centric level.

Formal training in palliative care for the trauma surgeon: Hospice and Palliative Medicine FellowshipCurrent Trauma Reports, by Alison Haruta, Ian McCurry, Allyson Cook Chapman; 4/24Palliative care aims to alleviate suffering across multiple domains and treat the patient and family as a unit to provide goal concordant care. Utilization of palliative care principles in trauma surgery has emerged as a crucial component of comprehensive patient care. We discuss formal hospice and palliative medicine training, the benefits of this fellowship, and how surgeons integrate this into their careers.

Diary of a Family PhysicianAmerican Family Physician, by Elizabeth Philippe, Jennifer Nielsen Fan; 4/24Publisher's note: This is part of a series of "a day in the life of...". It's interesting to view the world through someone else's perspective, and what might the "Diary of a Hospice Physician" say?

How do people in prison access palliative care? A scoping review of models of palliative care delivery for people in prison in high-income countriesPalliative Medicine, by Emma Gilbert, Nick De Viggiani, Joana de Sousa Martins, Tanuka Palit, Jessica Sears, Daniel Knights, Audrey Roulston, Mary Turner, Lucy E Selman; 4/24We identified a typology of three models of care delivery for people in prison in high-income countries: (1) Embedded hospice model, typified by an interdisciplinary team and volunteer caregivers providing care on-site; (2) Outsourcing Care model, in which end-of-life care is provided outside the prison; (3) Collaborative community model, which involves prisons engagement with other healthcare facilities or practitioners. ... Embedded hospice models in the USA are prevalent and demonstrate promising evidence for enhancing the care experience for recipients and peer caregivers. Chaplains, social workers and peer caregivers provide psychosocial support, yet documented assessment and strategies for managing the distinctive needs of this group and their families are lacking, despite their acknowledged complexity.

Factors associated with early palliative care among patients with heart failurePalliative Medicine, by Caroline P Meehan, Emily White, Alexander CVitan, Lan Jiang, Wen-Chih Wu, Mitchell Wice, Jensy Stafford, James L Rudolph; 4/24While more than 20% of HF patients in our cohort had PC well in advance of death, more than half died without PC. PC involvement seemed to be driven by comorbidities rather than HF. Effective collaboration with Cardiology is needed to identify patients who would benefit from earlier PC involvement.

Stillwater Hospice earns SAGECare credential for LGBTQ+ care 89.1 WBOI News - Fresh Air; by Ella Abbott; 4/18/24 Stillwater Hospice received a platinum level SAGECare credential this week, making it the only hospice agency in Indiana to have received the training-based credential. A SAGECare credential shows that the hospice team has been trained on LGBTQ+ aging cultural competency. Stillwater CEO Leslie Friedel said an advocate from the community reached out to them, recommending they work to get the training in order to create safe, local healthcare. “We started to look into it and it aligned so closely with our values," she said. "One of our core values at Stillwater is inclusivity and we felt like this was a way to really live in our values.” Friedel said it’s important for hospice staff to understand issues specific to that community because by 2030, experts expect around 7 million LGBTQ+ people 65 or older nationally.

Comparative effectiveness of acupuncture vs massage for relieving pain in patients with advanced cancer The ASCO Post; by Jun J. Mao, MD, MSCE and Andrew S. Epstein, MD; 4/17/24... The IMPACT study was conducted at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and regional sites in New York, New Jersey, and Florida to evaluate the long-term comparative effectiveness of acupuncture vs massage for pain in patients with advanced cancer. ... The primary outcome—change in worst pain intensity score from baseline to 26 weeks—was measured using the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI ranging from 0–10; higher numbers indicate worse pain intensity or interference). The secondary outcomes included fatigue, insomnia, and quality of life. ... To use these therapies, it is important to seek credentialed practitioners who have training or experience in working with patients who have cancer.