Literature Review

VITAS Healthcare is first hospice organization to earn American Heart Association Heart Failure Certification across all 15 states and DC Florida News Guide, Miami, FL; Press Release; 3/18/25 ... VITAS has become the first nationwide hospice provider to earn the American Heart Association® Palliative/Hospice Heart Failure certification across all 15 states in which it operates. The certification applies to 56 unique VITAS service areas, including the District of Columbia. ... “Many patients with heart failure do not receive the hospice care that could significantly improve their final months of life,” said Joseph Shega, MD, executive vice president and chief medical officer at VITAS. “This certification affirms our commitment to providing evidence-based hospice care that helps patients and families navigate advanced heart disease with dignity, comfort and the right level of support.”

End-of-life conversations: ‘When they open the door, you have to go in’ Oncology Nursing News; by Pattie Jakel, MN, RN, AOCN; 3/13/25Oncology nurses have a unique relationship with patients that allows for difficult but essential end-of-life conversations, says expert Patricia Jakel, MN, RN, AOCN. Jakel, one of the editors in chief of Oncology Nursing News, emphasized that following up with patients and ascertaining what answers and support they need comes with the close bonds that oncology nurses form with patients with cancer. ... [Jakel describes:] We play a really important role. And sometimes patients ask us difficult questions, and we have to be prepared for it. I remember a lovely young patient I had, she had 2 little girls, and she was very sick. And things weren’t going well for her in the hospital, and she just—she looked up at me and she said, "Am I dying today?" And I thought, "She’s opening the door. She needs to have this conversation.” And I said, “It’s not going to be today, but I think it’s going to be soon.” And she kind of chuckled, because her sister was at the bedside, and she said to her sister, “I need my makeup done. I want my makeup on today, if today’s not the day.” And that took us to a whole conversation about what dying would look like for her.Editor's note: Read and share this significant, sensitive video/article from its source, Oncology Nursing News. What communication education and support do you provide for your nurses? Explore this similar article from Oncology Nursing News, "APPs, Oncologists Work Together for End-of-Life Discussions," 11/2/24.

Leverage collaboration, detailed notes to improve end-of-life care Home Helath Line; by MaryKent Wolff; 3/13/25 Educate your hospice staff on monitoring symptoms that could indicate a patient is nearing the end of life. Agencies that manage these symptoms early and take the time to prepare and comfort caregivers and families for the transition could see these successes reflected in their CAHPS Hospice survey scores. [Subscription required for more content.]

Terminally ill Stanford professor teaches class about dying from cancerCBS News, Bay Area, CA; by Elizabeth Cook; 3/13/25 A Stanford University professor's new curriculum explores the multiple aspects and phases of a person dying of cancer, and it comes from a person with first-hand knowledge. Dr. Bryant Lin has been a professor for almost two decades. He's used to being the teacher, not the subject of his classes. But that all changed in 2024 when he was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. ... The diagnosis was a dose of cruel irony. Lin co-founded the Center for Asian Health Research and Education. One of the priorities for the foundation is researching non-small cell adenocarcinoma, also known as "never-smoker lung cancer," the same cancer diagnosis that Lin received. ... The class is called "From diagnosis to dialogue: A doctor's real-time battle with cancer." Within minutes of being posted, the class and the waitlist were full. ... The 10-week course covers the entire spectrum of cancer as seen through the eyes of someone who is living it. ... Stanford University recorded every session of the class so that they could live on for future physicians. If you would like to watch them, they can be found on YouTube. 

Partners In Care hosts A Year to Live book discussion group starting April 5 Cascasde Business News; by CBN; 3/11/25 The Bereavement Department in conjunction with leadership at Partners In Care is hosting a community group to explore messaging in Stephen Levine’s book A Year to Live through a series of monthly sessions in 2025 and early 2026. In A Year to Live, Stephen Levine, author of the perennial bestseller Who Dies? teaches us how to live each moment, each hour, and each day mindfully—as if it were all that was left. On his deathbed, Socrates exhorted his followers to practice dying as the highest form of wisdom. Levine decided to live this way himself for an entire year, and now he shares with us how such immediacy radically changes our view of the world and forces us to examine our priorities. 

Trends in Pediatric Palliative Care Research (TPPCR) 2025; Issue #2 Siden Research Team; Commentary by Kim Mooney-Doyle, MD; 3/6/25Kim Mooney-Doyle – University of Maryland School of Nursing, MD, USA: I am a nurse scientist dedicated to advancing family health in serious pediatric illness. I have studied parent-sibling relationships and the social ecological factors that impact it for the past decade. ... Siblings are special and, too often, invisible in the care of seriously ill children, adolescents, and young adults. Two articles in this month’s collection bring the needs and experiences of siblings into focus using a family lens. A key take-away from this important work is that while siblings want to communicate with their parents about their brother’s or sister’s illness, it can be hard to initiate such conversations. As clinicians and researchers, we can work with families to devise strategies that foster these conversations, such as providing prompts or a scripted conversation guide to help a parent engage the sibling.  

Tumor: why not use the warrior’s metaphor anymore taketonews; 3/7/25 ... The term "warrior" is often used to describe cancer sick people, referring to their strength, determination and ability to fight the disease. Although the intention is positive, docts and psychologists believe that this metaphor can generate negative effects on people with an oncological disease. The "warrior" label is not always appropriate and can have unwanted psychological effect on cancer patients. ... Use a language that does not reduce the patient to his struggle, but that enhances his entirety, including weakness, depression and pain, can contribute to a more human and respectful experience of care. ... [Click on the title's link for this further information below.]

At the end of life, doctors’ actions and patients’ wishes may be misaligned, according to a Rutgers Health study Rutgers; by Greg Bruno; 2/28/25 For terminally ill cancer patients, the final days of life are immensely personal, having the choice to continue cancer treatments, or to stop treatments and prioritize a more comfortable passing. What a patient wants, however, isn’t always what they receive, according to a Rutgers Health study published in the journal Cancer. “A patient's end of life is often not a reflection of what they want, but rather, who their oncologist happens to be,” said Login S. George, a health services researcher at the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research, and lead author of the national study. “The data doesn’t indicate patient-centered treatment decisions, but rather, more habitual or default ways of treating patients,” says George, who is also a member of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at Rutgers Cancer Institute, the state’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. ... [Click on the title's link for more statistics, insights, and recommendations.]

Qualitative analysis through the lens of minority nurses American Nurse; by Sonya Moore, PhD, RN, CRNA; Carolyn Still, PhD, RN; and Siobhan Aaron, PhD, RN; 3/4/25 Many argue that experiences of discrimination, racism, and microaggression (intentional or unintentional) serve as key barriers to the recruitment and retention of diverse nurses. Iheduru-Anderson, who interviewed 30 Black nurses, noted that despite an increase in the number of Black nurses in the U.S. workforce over time, they remain significantly underrepresented in leadership and faculty positions. The study identified several themes that contribute to lack of advancement, including maintaining White comfort, distrust, lack of role models and representation, expectations about leadership roles, and the ineffectiveness of advanced degrees in securing advancement. 

WVU nursing faculty aim to enhance rural home care for chronically ill through NIH award WVU Today - West Virginia University, Morgantown, WC; Press Release; 2/26/25 Three West Virginia University nursing faculty know firsthand the difficulties faced by family caregivers and their chronically ill loved ones. With a $2.7 million award from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Nursing Research that is one of the largest ever for the WVU School of Nursing, the faculty researchers aim to support these families while increasing access to care in the rural reaches of the Mountain State by testing an integrated, nurse-led intervention for family home care management of end-stage heart failure and palliative care. ... Through their lived experiences, as well as their previous studies using nursing science to develop and test nurse-led interventions, the three said they hope to improve family caregivers’ and their loved ones’ overall health and well-being, including reducing depression and anxiety, and monitoring and managing end-of-life symptoms.

North Texas doctor helps parents facing infant loss deal with the unimaginableCBS News - Texas; by Andrea Lucia, Lexi Salazar, Katie Standing; 2/25/25[Background story for parents Yvette and Thoms Ngo upon dealing with the news that their in-utero baby girl Zoe was diagnosed with Trisomy 13, would likely miscarry, or die soon after birth. Dr. Terri Weinman, their neonatologist offered rich palliative care interventions and support.] "When we met Dr. Weinman and her team the first time, she would say things like, 'So, what are we going to do when Zoey is here,' which changed my mindset completely," Yvette Ngo said. ... For the first time, the Ngos began to consider what Zoey's life, short as it might be, could look like. "It made us more comfortable with the situation, I mean as comfortable as you can be," Thomas Ngo said. "She just gave us hope." Zoey was born on April 18, 2024. She met her parents, her siblings and her grandparents. She was baptized. "They made us little crafts and mementos for us to take home, like footprints, really ways to help cherish Zoey's life," Yvette Ngo said. "They took her heartbeat and recorded it for us. Little things that we wouldn't necessarily think of." Zoey even had a chance to go home. But after 36 hours of life, Zoey passed away in her father's arms. The perinatal palliative care Zoey received remains rare. But for families like the Ngos, it provides a small sense of control when it's needed most. "Being able to plan so much in advance and think about all the different scenarios and how we wanted it," Yvette Ngo said. " I think, looking back on our time with Zoey..." "We wouldn't have done anything differently," Thomas Ngo said. Editor's note: Pair this with "Improving knowledge, confidence, and skills in perinatal bereavement care through simulation in baccalaureate nursing students," posted 2/24/25.

ONA Leadership Column: The next level State Nurses Associations - Oklahoma Nurses Association; by Dean Prentice, DHA, MA, BSN; 2/24/25 What is it going to take to raise the leadership ability of your staff to the next level? One of the many roles you play for your staff is encouraging their professional development. ... The future of nursing will require a well-rounded skill set that goes beyond traditional clinical training. Emotional intelligence, cultural competence, data-driven decision-making, ethical leadership, and resilience are all critical to meeting the challenges of tomorrow’s healthcare landscape. By developing these skills, nurses will not only improve patient outcomes but will also contribute to the evolution of the nursing profession, ensuring it remains relevant, compassionate, and effective in an increasingly complex world. 

How OU Health's Professional Practice Model is defining nursing excellence Health Leaders; by G Hatfield; 2/24/25 This model enables [Oklahoma University] OU Health to elevate nursing education, practice, and outcomes, says this CNE. ... Stefanie Beavers, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, chief nurse executive at OU Health, and HealthLeaders Exchange  ... The Concept: A professional practice model, according to Beavers, is an evidence-based practice that aligns organizational values with a framework driven by research and outcomes. The goal is to elevate nursing excellence and patient outcomes, but also to solidify the identity of the organization's teams. The OU Health Nursing Professional Practice Model was developed based on the Joanne Duffy Quality Caring Model, so that the organization could take caring behaviors and integrate them into OU Health’s values.