Literature Review

[UK] Students face the realities of hospice care in powerful visitDevonLive; by Lewis Clarke; 5/27/25 A visit to Exeter Hospice gave South Devon UTC students a moving insight into care careers—and the deep compassion behind them. Students from South Devon UTC in Newton Abbot have been given a rare glimpse into the realities of end-of-life care during a visit to Exeter Hospice, in what educators described as an eye-opening and inspiring experience. The visit formed part of the students’ health and social care curriculum and broader enrichment programme. Involving pupils from Years 10 to 13, the day provided an in-depth look at the range of careers within the hospice setting—from nursing and palliative care to occupational therapy, physiotherapy, counselling, and volunteer coordination.

Proposed California budget calls for prior authorization for hospice in Medicaid Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 5/22/25 The proposed California budget would require prior authorizations for hospice care within the state’s Medicaid program. Currently, Medicaid managed care plans who provide coverage through the state’s Medicaid system, Medi-Cal, may not perform prior authorizations for hospice. California’s Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) indicated in a 2025-2026 budget revision that this could save $25 million over the next two years and more than $50 million in the long term. If enacted, this would make California the first state in the nation to implement such a rule, according to the California Hospice & Palliative Care Association (CHAPCA). The association contends that the anticipated $25 million in cost savings is “speculative and fails to account for the downstream costs and systemic burdens this proposal would create,” according to a position paper shared with Hospice News. ... CHAPCA recommended to the state government three alternative approaches: ...

Gulfside Hospice Thrift Shoppes ABC News WFTS, Tampa Bay, FL; by Gulfside Healthcare; 5/27/25 Gulfside Hospice Thrift Shoppes serves a greater purpose than providing affordable gently used goods: all net proceeds fund charity care for hospice patients. Gulfside Hospice Thrift Shoppes has a new and improved online shop for easy access and including shipping. To learn more about Gulfside Hospice, visit Gulfside.org. To shop Gulfside Hospice Thrift Shoppes online visit gulfsidethrift.myshopify.com/ or stop by one of four convenient locations in New Port Richey, Hudson, Dade City or Zephyrhills. Follow Gulfside on social media for updates and sales.Editor's note: This online access opens up a world of engagement with those who cannot visit the shop in person, especially long distance donors and family members/friends acquainted with Gulfside Hospice. 

What it’s like to be … a hospice nurse Behavioral Scientist; by Dan Heath; 5/22/25 Comforting patients as they prepare to transition, navigating end-of-life regrets and frayed relationships, and providing support and advice for fearful families with Heather Meyerend, a retired hospice nurse. How does she know when the end is imminent? And what has the work taught her about the different ways we deal with death? In each episode of What It’s Like to Be…, bestselling author Dan Heath speaks with someone about what it’s like to walk in their (work) shoes.

Music as medicine: Jenny Chen, Tyler Jorgensen, & Theresa AllisonGeriPal podcast; by Eric Widera, Alex Smith; 5/22/25As you know, dear listeners, I love music. We start each podcast with a song in part to shift the frame, taking people out of their academic selves and into a more informal conversation. Well, today’s guests love music at least as much if not more than me, and they each make a strong case for music as medicine. Jenny Chen is a palliative care fellow at Yale who regularly sings for her seriously ill patients... Tyler Jorgensen not only plays music for his patients, starting out with just pulling up a tune on his iPhone, he and others at UT Austin and Dell med now wheel a record player into patients rooms and play vinyl, taking patients back to the sounds and routines – think taking the record out of the sleeve, placing the needle in the groove – of younger days... And Theresa Allison is a geriatrician and ethnomusicologist who studies the role of music for people with dementia.

"Taps" Bugle Call: USMC Drum & Bugle Corps [YouTube]YouTube filmed at the National Mall's Vietnam Memorial, Washington DC; compilation by Joy Berger, Editor in Chief; retrieved from the internet 5/22/25We invite you to begin this Memorial Day with this reflective playing of "Taps." Its simple, 24 notes evoke poignant memories and emotions for persons of all generations. Ongoing, we share with you these resources below for the veterans and their families whom you serve.

I... wanna soak up the sun! ~Sheryl Crow

We will fail when we fail to try. ~Rosa Parks

A critical examination of ‘family’ caregiving at the end of life in contexts of homelessness: Key concepts and future considerationsPalliative Care and Social Practice; Ashley Mollison, Kelli I. Stajduhar, Marilou Gagnon, Ryan McNeil; 5/25In a world that is becoming more inequitable, understanding and reducing health disparities is a key priority for palliative care. This essay has demonstrated that bio-legal assumptions and privileging may be yet one more inequity in palliative care to address and overcome. This essay has focused in on populations facing homelessness and housing vulnerability, but changing families and growing inequality suggests the potential broad applicability of this work for our collective future. Palliative care is one of the areas of the Western healthcare system that explicitly attends to the person with serious illness and their family and caregivers understanding deeply how the suffering and joys of one group impacts the other. If there is a place in the current health system that can truly make space for caregiving – in all the ways it happens – it is, and should be, palliative care.

Does family functioning matter? Understanding the relationship between family interactions and depressive symptoms for caregivers of cancer patientsAmerican Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care; by Keisha White Makinde, Kyle A Pitzer, Jacquelyn J Benson, Maysara Mitchell, Debra Parker Oliver, George Demiris, Karla T Washington; 6/25Caregivers of cancer patients are at increased risk of depression and other health challenges. There is limited understanding of the role of the caregiver's own family members in promoting or discouraging mental wellbeing. Family caregivers with more positive family interactions are likely to have fewer depressive symptoms, suggesting family functioning may play a key role in bolstering family caregiver mental health and wellbeing.

An intervention to increase advance care planning among older adults with advanced cancer-A randomized clinical trialJAMA Network Open; Angelo E. Volandes, MD, MPH; Yuchiao Chang, PhD; Joshua R. Lakin, MD; Michael K. Paasche-Orlow, MD; Charlotta Lindvall, MD, PhD; Seth N. Zupanc, BA; Diana Martins-Welch, MD; Maria T. Carney, MD; Edith A. Burns, MD; Jennifer Itty, MPH; Kaitlin Emmert-Tangredi, MSW; Narda J. Martin, MSN-ED, RN; Shreya Sanghani, MS; Jon Tilburt, MD; Kathryn I. Pollak, PhD; Aretha Delight Davis, MD, JD; Cynthia Garde, MBA; Michael J. Barry, MD; Areej El-Jawahri, MD; Lisa Quintiliani, PhD; Kate Sciacca, NP; Julie Goldman, MPH; James A. Tulsky, MD; 5/25Despite accumulating evidence of the benefits of these discussions, documentation of advance care planning (ACP) activity in the electronic health record (EHR) remains low and inconsistent for most health care systems, increasing the risk that patients will not receive care that matches their goals. In this pragmatic stepped-wedge randomized clinical trial among older patients with advanced cancer, an intervention combining patient video decision aids and clinician communication skills training increased the proportion of patients with ACP documentation. This randomized clinical trial exploring a combined intervention of patient empowerment and clinician communication skills training found a significant and clinically meaningful increase in ACP documentation rates with a scalable intervention that can be rapidly implemented across large health care systems. This approach offers an innovative paradigm with a clinically meaningful increase in ACP documentation, a widely used quality metric that reflects high-quality patient-centered care delivery.

The dementia care workforce: Essential to care but large research gaps existAlzheimer's and Dementia; Jasmine L Travers Altizer, Jennifer M Reckrey, Bianca K Frogner, David C Grabowski, Joanne Spetz; 5/25People living with dementia and their care partners benefit from services and supports from a wide variety of healthcare and social service professionals. This article provides an overview of the dementia care workforce and highlights gaps and opportunities for data collection and research to advance the workforce and its contributions to high-quality care. There are notable gaps in our ability to track career pathways, assess the impact of training, identify best practices for recruitment and retention, and understand attributes of the workforce that may affect the quality of both workers' lives and the care they provide to people living with dementia. The dementia care workforce works in multiple settings and includes many occupations. Evaluation research is needed to improve direct care worker recruitment, retention, and knowledge.

[Sweden / Australia / UK] Harms of morphine for chronic breathlessness in relation to dose, duration and titration phaseJournal of Pain and Symptom Management; by Magnus Ekström, Fatima Alameri, Sungwon Chang, Diana Ferreira, Miriam J Johnson, David C Currow; 6/25In people with COPD and severe chronic breathlessness, the risk of adverse events was highest during the first week of treatment in a dose-related fashion but did not differ by titration phase or by dose of once-daily SR morphine between 8 and 32 mg/day.