Literature Review

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.

How compassion and research build palliative care for the precision oncology era OncLive; by Ross Camidge, MD, PhD and Laura A. Petrillo, MD; 9/9/26 Drs. Camidge and Petrillo discuss Dr. Petrillo's evolution from a science-curious student to a leader in palliative care research. How This Is Building Me, hosted by world-renowned oncologist D. Ross Camidge, MD, PhD, is a podcast focused on the highs and lows, ups and downs of all those involved with cancer, cancer medicine, and cancer science across the full spectrum of life's experiences. In this episode, Dr Camidge sat down with Laura A. Petrillo, MD, a palliative care physician-investigator in the Division of Palliative Care and Geriatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Using case studies to bridge the undergraduate nursing education gap in palliative and hospice careJournal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing; by Katherine Adams, Lisa Cross; 8/26Undergraduate nursing students struggle with understanding pharmacological pain management, especially in palliative care. New nurses indicate needing more experience with pain management and ethical dilemmas surrounding pain management. This project aimed to develop real-life case scenarios aligned with palliative competencies for use in undergraduate courses. Traditionally, palliative and hospice content is delivered with community courses, possibly limiting student competency across settings. These case studies present an opportunity for formative student assessment in pharmacological and other palliative management over 4 settings. Facilitation requires reflective techniques, and nurse faculty may need support in guiding discussions.

I lost my sister to cancer. Here’s what I learned about medically assisted death. The Washington Post; by Steven Petrow; 8/29/26 The same year that my parents died, my sister, Julie, then 55, was diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer. Five years and three recurrences later, she’d exhausted all viable treatment options. At that point, she’d undergone one nine-hour surgery, six courses of chemotherapy and had joined two clinical trials. Like my parents’ physicians had done, Julie’s doctor eventually recommended palliative care, with at-home hospice, to keep her comfortable during her last months. ... [Julie, 61, chose legal MAID in 2023.] Approaching MAID as a journalist, I had questions: How is eligibility determined, what are the safeguards, does it always work, is a health care professional involved and many others. As a brother, however, I was conflicted and confused, and my questions felt more urgent and personal. ... [Access might be limited by a paywall.]  

Camp gives local students a hands-on look at careers in health care MaineHealth, North Conway, NH; Press Release; 8/25/26More than 20 local middle and high school students spent a week this summer discovering that there is much more to health care than what happens in a hospital room. MaineHealth Memorial Hospital’s annual Health Camp offered in partnership with MWV School to Career Summer Program gave students an opportunity to explore a wide range of health care careers through hands-on activities, demonstrations, games and behind-the-scenes experiences throughout the hospital. Throughout the week, campers rotated through hospital departments and interactive activities, getting a firsthand look at the many skills, roles and professions that contribute to patient care.

Hospice of Southern West Virginia is offering free Hospice Aide training for qualified applicants sABC-4 WOAY, Beckley, WV; by Brandy Lawrence; 8/26/26 Hospice of Southern West Virginia is offering Hospice Aide training at no cost to applicants interested in starting a career caring for hospice patients in their homes and at Bowers Hospice House. Applicants must have a high school diploma or equivalent, reliable transportation, and complete a WV Cares background check and drug screening. Applications are open now, and training begins on the first day of employment once all pre-employment requirements are completed. Editor's Note: Bravo to Hospice of Southern West Virginia for this innovative, supportive edcuation initiative to address staffing needs for hospice aides. To adapt this for your hospice, examine the CMS Hospice Conditions of Participation: § 418.76 Hospice aide and homemaker services.

A retrospective mixed-methods analysis of falls among patients in a social model hospice residential care home American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine; by Carol S. Weisse, PhD, Kelly Melekis, MSW, PhD, Lam Nguyen, Cort Collier, BS, and Nadia Kelley, MPH; 8/9/26 ... In the 24-hour period prior to patients’ falls, opiates were shown to be the most frequently administered medication followed by benzodiazepines, with higher rates of falls among patients who consumed both of these medications in combination. Most falls occurred in the bedroom or bathroom and were related to toileting needs. Results suggest that informal caregivers may benefit from additional training when supporting hospice patients’ toileting needs, especially when they have received opiates and benzodiazepines. Results illustrate caregivers’ efforts to balance fall risk with patients’ desire for autonomy as a central element of home hospice care. Editor's Note: What systems do you have in place for reporting, responding to, and reducing patient falls, especially in homes? At a minimum, you need to have these in place:

BJC HealthCare announces new name for Palliative and Supportive Care Institute to expand impact BJC HealthCare; Press Release; 8/18/26 The demand for specialized serious illness and end-of-life care continues to grow as our population ages and more people live longer with complex chronic conditions. To meet this growing need, BJC HealthCare recently made a significant investment through The Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital to broaden its impact in palliative and hospice care by naming the Liekweg Family Palliative and Supportive Care Institute at BJC HealthCare in honor of Richard J. Liekweg, who retired as BJC’s CEO in 2025. “We are pleased to honor Rich Liekweg’s leadership by investing to accelerate the Institute's growth, research, and clinical impact for patients and families facing serious illness,” says Nick Barto, BJC Health president and CEO.

Empowering elderly Chinese Americans: Advance care planning educational workshopGeriatric Nursing; by Mengyao Zhao, Tammy Tyree; 7/26Advance care planning (ACP) is important to ensure an individual's values and preferences are followed at the end-of-life (EOL). However, elderly Chinese Americans have a much lower advance directive (AD) completion rate than the national average. This quality improvement project aimed to improve ACP engagement and AD completion rates among elderly Chinese Americans at a local senior center in Arizona. Three monthly culturally tailored educational workshops were conducted, and ... data analysis showed a significant increase in ACP engagement scores over time ...  Additionally, AD completion rates rose by 220% after the intervention. These findings indicate that culturally tailored educational workshops can effectively improve ACP engagement and AD completion rates in elderly Chinese Americans.

Dementia coach Jeannine Forrest of Through the Forrest recently featured on Close Up Radio EIN Presswire, Chicago, IL; by Close Up Television & Radio; 8/17/26 Jeannine Forrest still remembers the moment her mother looked at her in her own home and said, “I’m living in a house of strangers.” At that moment, as a registered nurse, she realized she was not prepared to understand what her mother was truly experiencing. That realization became her life’s work. More than 30 years later, Forrest is a dementia coach and founder of Through the Forrest, where she works directly with family caregivers. ... Forrest explains that dementia shows up differently in every person, and is much more than memory loss alone. Her approach rests on one idea: When families understand what is happening, have a plan, and feel supported, life can become less frightening and more meaningful for both the person living with dementia and the caregiver.

Hospice and Palliative Medicine Advisory Committee Meeting Summary | Spring 2026American Board of Internal Medicince | ABIM Blog, Philadelphia, PA; by ABIM; 7/31/26 The Hospice and Palliative Medicine Advisory Committee held its spring meeting on April 28, 2026. Representatives from the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) and guests from the University of Colorado joined for a portion of the meeting. ... The following is a summary of the spring meeting. ... Furman S. McDonald, MD, MPH, President and CEO of ABIM and the ABIM Foundation, discussed progress on ABIM’s strategic initiatives, including:

At and end-of-life care home, a young cancer survivor finds his calling  The Buffalo News, Buffalo, NY; by Jon Harris; 7/28/26  Seated in the chapel at Sloan Comfort Care Home, 22-year-old Evan Folsom reflected on what working at the end-of-life facility has meant to him. "The Home did come at the right time for me," said Folsom, hours after finishing an overnight shift there, and a day before taking the daylong Medical College Admission Test. Folsom survived a brain tumor as a toddler and spent years recovering. That alone shaped an interest in medicine. ... His work at Sloan Comfort Care Home helped him come to terms with certain issues and fueled his interest in studying the complex moral and ethical questions that arise in medicine. So he took a "shot in the dark" and applied to Harvard Medical School's Master of Science in Bioethics program, along with a few other schools. He got into all of them but chose Harvard because Boston holds a special full-circle meaning for him. Massachusetts General Hospital, the largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, is where he received treatment as a toddler. "Harvard was specifically deep for me, because that's kind of where my journey started," he said. Folsom leaves for Boston on Aug. 1 ...