Literature Review

The challenges of advance care planning for acute care registered nursesCanadian Journal of Nursing Research, by Lori L Rietze, Kelli I Stajduhar, Mary Ellen Purkis, Denise Cloutier; 4/24Nurses were challenged to meet multiple competing demands, leaving them to scramble to manage complex and critically ill acute care patients while also fulfilling organizational tasks aligned with funding metrics, accreditation, and strategic planning priorities. Such factors limited nurses' capacity to engage their patients in ACP. ... Acute care settings that align patient values and medical treatment need to foster ACP practices by revising organizational policies and processes to support this outcome, analyzing the tasks of healthcare providers to determine who might best address it, and budgeting how to support it with additional resources.

Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution. ~Aristotle

A process evaluation of a palliative care social work intervention for cancer patients in skilled nursing facilitiesJournal of Palliative Medicine, by Sarguni Singh, MD; Ashley Dafoe, MA; Dana Lahoff, LCSW; Laurel Tropeano, LCSW; Bree Owens, LCSW; Erin Nielsen, LCSW; John Cagle, MSW, PhD; Hillary D. Lum, MD, PhD; Brooke Dorsey Holliman, PhD; Stacy Fischer, MD; 4/24Assessing and Listening to Individual Goals and Needs (ALIGN) is a palliative care social work intervention that aims to improve delivery of goal-concordant care for hospitalized older adults with cancer discharged to skilled nursing facilities. ... ALIGN offers support in prognostic understanding, communication, and decision making during a pivotal time when patient and caregivers' goals have not been met and they are reassessing priorities.

Hospices and emergency preparedness planning: A scoping review of the literatureJournal of Palliative Care, by Janna E Baker Rogers; 4/24Palliative and end-of-life care, as provided by hospices, are important elements of a healthcare response to disasters. A scoping review of the literature was conducted to examine and synthesize what is currently known about emergency preparedness planning by hospices.

Friday. The golden child of the weekdays. The superhero of the workweek. The welcome wagon to the weekend. — Anonymous

New study calls home health star ratings into question McKnights Home Care, by Adam Healy, 4/11/24A comparison of agency-reported functional measures and claims-based hospitalization measures raises doubts about the value of star ratings as a means of evaluating home health agency (HHA) quality. The study, published Wednesday in JAMA Network Open, analyzed differences between claims-based and agency-reported outcomes for nearly 23 million patient episodes before and after the introduction of the star ratings system to compare changes over time. 

HopeHealth’s expanding scope of pediatric hospice, palliative services Hospice News, by Holly Vossel; 4/8/24 HopeHealth has been growing its pediatric hospice and supportive care service lines in recent years to address a range of unmet needs among seriously ill children and their families. The nonprofit health system serves Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts. ... Hospice News recently sat down with pediatrician Dr. Rebecca MacDonell-Yilmaz, medical director of HopeHealth’s pediatric supportive services. 

Readers share stories of their loved ones’ deathbed visions DNYUZ; 4/10/24 When I started reporting “What Deathbed Visions Teach Us About Living,” about the visions, often of loved ones, that some people have in the final stretches of their lives, I had no idea just how universal the experience was. But within minutes of the story’s publication, readers took to the comments section to post their own memories of having witnessed the phenomenon. The stories were rich, deeply personal, and seemed to confirm something that the researcher featured in my story, Dr. Chris Kerr, knew in his years of studying such visions: they bring peace to the dying and solace to the living. Family members wrote in with stories of watching loved ones have visions, as did health care workers, who had years of experience witnessing them. [Click on the article's title to read more stories.]

Valley Health and Blue Ridge Hospice expand partnership to offer hospice care at Shenandoah Memorial HospitalABC WHSV Fox TV 3, by Colby Johnson; 4/10/24 Valley Health and Blue Ridge Hospice are expanding their partnership to be able to offer their collaborative ‘Hospice in the Hospital’ program at Shenandoah Memorial Hospital in Woodstock. The program will allow patients at Shenandoah Memorial to receive end-of-life hospice care. 

Alleged DNR mix-up death highlights concerns for nursing homes McKnights Long-Term Care News, by Josh Henreckson; 4/11/24 The untimely death of a Connecticut nursing home resident in September was the result of mistakenly applying a roommate’s do-not-resuscitate order, alleges a lawsuit filed by that resident’s daughter last week. The potential mix-up illuminates struggles faced by nursing homes across the country when it comes to managing the increasingly complex needs of their patients. 

Overcoming key diversity gaps within the healthcare continuum MedCity News, by Alexandra Moens; 4/9/24Leaders need a framework to identify, understand, effectively address diversity gaps, and measure improvement across the continuum of care. A data-driven approach can provide valuable insights into demographic trends, disparities in healthcare access and outcomes, and the underlying factors contributing to these discrepancies. Disparities in diversity and inclusion continue to permeate every aspect of healthcare. ... In the U.S., stark statistics reveal the extent of these imbalances. Only about 36% of active physicians are female, with even fewer identifying as non-White. While Black and Hispanic Americans comprise a considerable portion of the population, their representation among healthcare practitioners is disproportionately low. 

Angela Hospice opening a hospice residence at Lourdes Senior Community in Waterford Detroit Regional Chamber, by Angela Hospice; 4/10/24 Angela Hospice will expand its caring services to the Waterford community and beyond, when it begins operating a 15-bed hospice residence at Lourdes Senior Community this summer and providing additional home hospice services in the area. The non-profit will extend its geographic reach further into north Oakland County, offering additional outreach to benefit all in the community, not just those on hospice care, through transformational grief support groups, educational outreach, and their Good Samaritan program, which serves those who are without insurance or the ability to pay for hospice.