Literature Review

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 ...

Keyser Campus nursing students use VR to assist in training West Virginia University School of Nursing; Press Release; 7/22/26 When students in the WVU School of Nursing Keyser Campus program start classes this fall, they will be aided and assisted by the latest technology that will allow them to explore human anatomy with a view from the inside out. Future nurses at WVU Potomac State College will be assisted in their clinical and lab studies with the use of sophisticated Virtual Reality equipment – state-of-the-art goggles that, through AI technology, allow the wearer to experience conditions, symptoms, and even assess and possibly diagnose conditions within the human body. ... It brings students — albeit digitally — into an autopsy examination, an open heart surgery, or even bedside with a child in the ER getting fitted with a cast for a broken leg.

Nursing philosophy: What it is and why it matters in BSN education Nevada State University; by RN to BSN; 7/23/26... A nursing philosophy is a personal statement of the values and motivations that guide a nurse’s practice. It is not a job description or a list of clinical competencies; rather, it is a reflection of what nursing means to the individual practitioner and how that meaning informs the way they show up at work. A well-developed philosophy of nursing typically addresses several core areas:

Religious scripts for dying The Christian Century; by Aaron Klink; 7/20/26 Travis Pickell explores the moral burden placed on those who face end-of-life medical decisions but lack communal support. Amid much conversation about end-of-life care—its methods, costs, and ethics—there is little sustained attention to the question of why this subject generates so much political and moral controversy. The blame is sometimes placed on advances in medical technologies (such as ventilators and artificial nutrition and hydration) or in treatments (such as kidney dialysis and aggressive chemotherapy). But the reality is more complicated, argues Travis Pickell in Burdened Agency - Christian Theology and End-of-Life Ethics. ... Pickell devotes much of the book to exploring various theological understandings of death and outlining the “scripts for dying” created by each theology. 

An end-of-life care approach defining a new standard of careJAMDA; by David N. Hoffman; 6/26The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Leadership Alliance established an End-of-Life Care/Ending-Life Care Accelerator to define a continuum of care for patients as they progress from curative care, to palliative care, to hospice care, to final care planning, including ending life care interventions such as Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD), Voluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED), and palliative sedation. This accelerator defined as its goal the task of breaking down barriers between care providers which has been illuminated by research recently conducted by the Completed Life Initiative (CLI). CLI’s research efforts in this area started with an ongoing examination of nationwide hospice organization policies to provide referral for active intervention at the end of life. That effort was refocused on the widespread noncompliance of California and Washington state hospice organizations with a state law requirement to post on the organizations website a list of interventions made available by the hospice organization.

CMS’ proposed Palliative Care Benefit: What we know so far CHAP - Community Health Accreditation Partner; free webinar to be presented by Dr. Jennifer Kennedy and Dr. Mary Lynn McPherson; to be presented 7/15/26 CMS recently released the FY 2027 Hospice proposed rule and the CY 2027 Home Health proposed rule, both of which address community-based palliative care. Join CHAP for a review of CMS's proposed changes, including new requests for feedback, clarification on the provision of skilled palliative care services under existing Medicare home health benefits, and planned future guidance on covered palliative care services. We'll also discuss how CMS distinguishes palliative care from hospice care and its role in supporting patients with serious illness who continue to receive life-prolonging treatment. 

How do senior hospital doctors perceive their role in supporting junior colleagues with navigating ethical issues in end-of-life care? BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care; by Sinead Donnelly, Simon Walker, John McMillan and Jean Hay-Smith; 6/29/26 Objectives: ... The aim of this study was to explore senior doctors’ experience of supporting first-year and second-year resident doctors including the strategies used.Results: ... The first theme, Context: ‘the job is brutal’, details the pressure on and vulnerability of both senior and junior doctors. The second theme, Support: ‘it is the human part we want to live, we also have the expertise’, encompasses what senior doctors do and would like to do more of to support junior doctors. Meeting junior doctors on a human level and role modelling self-awareness and reflection are the most effective ways of support. The lack of value placed on these ways of support is a source of frustration.

Palliative care or hospice? Flipping the classroom for 1st year pre-clinical medical students with interactive online contentAmerican Journal of Hospice & Palliative Care; by Maxwell Vergo, Charles Wang, Lawrence Myers; 5/26Although palliative care competencies appear on USMLE [United States Medical Licensing Examination] examinations, pre-clinical curricula devote minimal time to end-of-life education. We created a 30-minute interactive online module in Articulate 360™ for first year students covering palliative care definitions, eligibility criteria, and care settings. In-class time was restructured to small group case discussions distinguishing primary palliative care, specialty palliative care, and hospice. Correct responses on a palliative care examination question improved from 57% (2020-2021, virtual lecture) to 66%, 67%, and 80% in subsequent years with the flipped intervention. The pre-work engaged students in learning (79-89% agreement), enabled focus on advanced topics during class (73-77% agreement), and was described as interactive and helpful in teacher evaluations.

HPCC Announces APHSW-C® AccreditationHospice & Palliative Credentialing Center; Press Release; 6/25/26On June 10, the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) granted accreditation to the Hospice and Palliative Credentialing Center (HPCC) for demonstrating compliance with the NCCA Standards for the Accreditation of Certification Programs for its Advanced Palliative Hospice Social Worker–Certified (APHSW-C®) program. NCCA sets the national benchmark for high-quality voluntary certification programs across diverse industries. This accreditation affirms that the program has successfully met the stringent standards required for accreditation and is regarded as a trustworthy, vetted credential program. The APHSW-C® program, which has 843 active certificants, is designed for experienced hospice and -palliative social workers. The APHSW-C® examination consists of 150 multiple-choice items, and individuals must meet a set of requirements to be eligible to sit for the exam. Testing windows are available in March, June, September, and December of each year. 

Providing inclusive and affirmative palliative care for the LGBTQ+ community: why inclusive care for LGBTQ+ patients is essential CAPC - Center to Advance Palliative Care; by Kimberly D. Acquaviva, PhD, MSW, CSE, FNAP, Anup Bharani, MD, Brynn Bowman, MPA, Brittany Chambers, MPH, CHES, Diane Farquhar, LCSW, ACSW (1957 – 2023), Noelle Marie Javier, MD, Rabbi Max Zev Reynolds, BCC, MA, Billy Rosa, PhD, MBE, APRN, Rayna Ross, CHES; retrieved from the internet 6/9/26 Despite the historical efforts to advance civil rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and/or questioning (LGTBQ+) community – there continues to be ongoing discrimination in society, including in health care. Providing inclusive care for seriously ill LGBTQ+ patients is essential for ensuring equitable, respectful, and comprehensive health care. ... The Bottom Line: For patients that have experienced discrimination from the health system, trust-building is a key priority and the foundation on which health care is delivered.