Literature Review

Sierra Hills strike ends, negotiations ongoing with parent company Wyoming Tribune Eagle; by Noah Zahn; 1/9/25 Employees of Sierra Hills Assisted Living concluded their strike on Jan. 2, and on Tuesday, the union met with Edgewood Healthcare, which owns Sierra Hills, for another contract bargaining session. ... Throughout the strike, employees said they were fighting for a better contract primarily for the health and safety of the residents and the employees, claiming the existing working conditions are unsafe. ... Wilkinson said the primary concern of the employees is safety issues that result from employees performing out-of-scope duties. ... For Sierra Hills staff, [being required to provide out of scope care] began when Edgewood introduced hospice care at Sierra Hills a few years ago, shortly after the pandemic. There are hospice nurses who are at the facility a couple of hours per week to care for the residents, but the rest of the time, the burden of care often falls to the CNAs and RNs on the clock. In situations where timely care is needed, employees have said it can be difficult to get the help of a hospice nurse in time.

Which skills will survive the AI onslaught? National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), Arlington, VA; by Vivek Sharma and David C. Edelman; 12/17/24 ... Boards and CEOs are inundated with reports projecting doomsday scenarios of job displacement due to AI. For example, according to the World Economic Forum's The Future of Jobs Report 2020, automation and AI are expected to displace 85 million jobs globally by 2025, especially in industries such as manufacturing, data entry, and customer service due to the repetitive nature and predictable processes of these fields. AI is already disrupting many roles hitherto considered firmly within the human domain. ... Irreplaceable Human Dimensions ... In analyzing a wide range of articles on the topic, when a job scores high along any of the following three dimensions, it creates significant hurdles for displacement by AI:

Weekly US Map: Influenza summary updateCDC - U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; ongoing, retrieved from the internet 12/16/24A Weekly Influenza Surveillance Report Prepared by the Influenza Division Editor's note: Bookmark this page to your web browser to monitor flu activity in your service areas through these more vulnerable winter months. Click on the map's "State" button for macro data at the state level. Click on the map's "CBSA" to drill down to counties.

How hospice CNAs provide comfort in end-of-life care Intelligent Living; by Jennifer Barns; 12/8/24 End-of-life care is one of the most challenging yet meaningful services that healthcare professionals can offer. During such a delicate time, the role of a hospice CNA becomes essential. ... Table of Contents:

2025 BrightSpring brighter futures and hospice nursing scholarships now open BrightSpring Health Services - Careers; 12/3/24 Applications are being accepted from now through Friday, February 28, 2025, at 5 p.m. ET. For more information and to apply, visit https://cflouisville.awardspring.com/Home/Scholarships.  ... The BrightSpring Brighter Futures Scholarship awards one $10,000 per year scholarship, renewable for up to four years as long as the student maintains good academic standing with their college or university. ... The BrightSpring Hospice Nursing Scholarship awards four $5,000 per year scholarships, renewable for up to two years as long as the student maintains good academic standing with their college or university.Editor's note: How might your hospice organization partner with universities/colleges to provide a similar program for professional career growth?

Owatonna MN Hospice Care Program by Freedom Home Care updated and relaunched Freedom Home Care, Owatonna, MN; 11/15/24 Freedom Home Care announced the relaunch of its enhanced Hospice Care Supplement Program, designed to provide support for families and their loved ones receiving hospice care. The program addresses critical gaps by offering additional assistance with daily household tasks, personal care, family respite, overnight caregiving and 24 hour care.  ... The Hospice Care Supplement program is designed to complement the essential medical and emotional care provided by hospice teams, creating a holistic approach that prioritizes both the patient’s and the family’s well-being.

In 2023, the majority of home health aides and personal care aides were women U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - TED: The Economics Daily; 11/13/24 In honor of National Home Care and Hospice Month, we are highlighting data about two of the most common occupations that provide care to people with illnesses or disabilities in a home or community-based setting—home health aides and personal care aides. In 2023, women accounted for 87 percent of all home health aides and 80 percent of personal care aides. Workers in these two occupations assist people with activities of daily living (such as feeding or bathing), though home health aides generally focus more on their patients’ health and safety, while personal care aides often assist with other tasks (such as errands and housekeeping). Across all occupations, 47 percent of workers were women. Home health aides and personal care aides were more likely to be Black or African American (30 percent and 25 percent, respectively) than were workers overall (13 percent). Forty-two percent of home health aides and 27 percent of personal care aides were foreign born, higher than the average of 19 percent for workers overall. ... [Click on the title's link to continue reading.]

Sioux City’s first Caregiver Olympics celebrates home care KCAU Sioux City; by Alyssa Tatsch; 11/7/24 November is National Care at Home Month, and to celebrate, several local healthcare organizations came together to participate in Sioux City’s first Caregiver Olympics. “I was watching the Olympics this summer and I was thinking of something fun to do with our caregiving team,” Visiting Angels owner and director Kristen Hammerstrom said. “Then I was at a meeting with some of the other [home care organizations] and I floated the idea to them and they said ‘that would be awesome.’” In honor of National Hospice and Palliative Care month, nine Sioux City caregiving teams went head-to-head competing in a relay race with specialized in-home care tasks. ... “As much as it is difficult to be a caregiver, it is also difficult for these employees too to help and take care of families, so this is just our light heartfelt fun moment to help people,” Hospice of Siouxland marketing & fund director Kim Wilson said. Despite the friendly competitive atmosphere, all nine teams shared one common goal. “While we might be competitors, at the end of the day our main goal is to care for patients and make sure that our patients and their loved ones are taken care of. That is our main goal,” Wilson said.

NY home care agency pays $400K in racial prejudice lawsuit A home care agency in Brooklyn, NY, was ordered to pay $400,000 to settle a race and national origin discrimination lawsuit filed by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. ACARE HHC Inc., doing business as Four Seasons Licensed Home Health Care Agency, routinely assigned home health aides based on clients’ racial preferences, according to a consent order filed with the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York. These workers, which included Black and Hispanic aides, would either be transferred to new client assignments based on clients’ wishes or lose their employment entirely, EEOC found. These practices were a violation of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employers from making job assignments based on workers’ race or national origin. Four Seasons will pay $400,000 in monetary relief for the home health aides affected, according to the consent order. It will also update its internal policies and training processes related to Civil Rights Act requirements, cease making home health aide assignments based on clients’ race or nationality preferences, and provide semi-annual reports to the EEOC regarding any reports or complaints surrounding race discrimination.

One healthcare job poised for the greatest shortage Becker's Hospital Review; by Molly Gamble; 9/6/24 Nursing assistants face the greatest projected deficit over any other analyzed healthcare occupation, with a projected shortage of more than 73,000 assistants nationwide by 2028. The forecast comes from Mercer, which projects a nationwide shortage of more than 100,000 healthcare workers by 2028. The need for nursing assistants is expected to be greatest, with only 13 states expected to meet or exceed future demand. "The projected supply of nursing assistants — an occupation that constitutes 8% of the total US healthcare workforce and 40% of healthcare support occupations in 2023 — is discouraging," Mercer consultants wrote in their Aug. 29 report, "Future of the U.S. Healthcare Industry: Labor Market Projections by 2028."

Amid trauma and burnout, it ‘takes courage’ to reflect on mental, emotional well-being Healio; by Jennifer Byrne; 7/31/24 ... [William E. Rosa, PhD, MBE, MS] began to realize that in the stressful, devastating situations he and his colleagues faced daily, there was much to be learned from the principles of trauma-informed care. ... “This is the idea that cultivating an awareness can prevent us from re-traumatizing ourselves and others,” he said. “I think it starts with reflecting on — and telling the truth about — our mental and emotional well-being. That takes courage.” In acknowledging the emotional scars, brokenness and vulnerability that comes from tragedy and loss, individuals can begin to heal a lifetime of stored and unresolved trauma, Rosa said. “As a workforce, you and I see unacceptable rates of suicide, burnout, moral distress and attrition,” he said. “It’s time that we come to safe and supported terms with our trauma — not just as individuals, but as a collective, not only for the patients and families we serve, but for us to survive.”Editor's Note: In this article, Dr. Rosa identified "the emotional impact of taking yet another patient off the ventilator at the end of life." Recent articles we've posted in this newsletter about trauma-informed care been in our "Top Reads." While those articles focused on trauma-informed care of the persons you serve, this focuses on the persons who serve, your all-important direct patient care clinicians.

Caregivers of end-of-life patients reveal the last words they hear most often and the most common regrets from patients WhatsNew2Day; by Alexander; 7/27/24... While each person’s final moments are different, chaplains and palliative care nurses have said most people approach their death with “radical acceptance.” People who are actively dying also often have a new sense of clarity about the universe and may even have a temporary burst of energy or sudden moments of clarity if they have dementia. The last words patients usually say to their families are to tell them they love them... [Often, people] who are in the midst of dying want to be surrounded by their loved ones and pets. Their final words are often words of love and pleas for forgiveness, as well as expressions of regret, ... [Another described that people show] "a desire for connection" with loved ones and faith. Editor's Note: This article provides a balanced scope of descriptions from several professionals, notably Catherine Duncan, Annemarie Switchulis, Neal Shah, and Zackary Price. In this day of social media, some hospice professionals (past or present) tout definitive, authoritative descriptions of what all dying persons experience, with too many assumptions and generalizations. Beware what you read and distribute, especially if the tone and language (of other articles) are sensationalized in a way to garner social media "expertise," followers and Shares--at the expense of more balanced, sensitive, diverse, personalized experiences.

Caregiver charged with abusing dementia patient The Freeman, Waukesha County, WI; by Freeman Staff; 7/9/24 A West Allis woman has been charged after she allegedly struck a dementia patient in her care and put a pillow over the woman’s face out of frustration. Erica Junger, 22, was charged Monday in Waukesha County Circuit Court with a count of intentionally abusing a patient, and faces up to six years in prison if convicted. She made an initial appearance in court Monday, where she was released on a $2,500 signature bond and ordered by Court Commissioner David Herring not to work in any job where she is responsible for the health care and safety of others. ... She said she "snapped" and did things she wasn’t supposed to do, but didn’t mean anything by it. ... The complaint did not identify the facility where the incident took place. But it did identify Junger as an employee of Agrace Hospice, which contracts with the facility.