Literature Review

The Healing Page: how Akron Children's combines clinical care with narrative medicine poetry WOSU Public Media | NPR/PBS, Akron, OH ; by Jeff St. Clair; 7/13/26 The written word has healing power. That’s the idea behind narrative medicine, an emerging branch of healthcare that adds creative writing to the clinical toolkit. Akron Children’s Hospital is a leader in narrative medicine, and all this week, Ideastream Public Media is highlighting the program's writers in our series "The Healing Page." Dr. Sarah Friebert is director of Akron Children's palliative care center ... said when sick kids write about what they’re going through, “We tap into an inner spring of wellness and spirituality and wholeness ..." Friebert likened a critical diagnosis to a bomb going off in a family. Her program considers the blast radius of a diagnosis by extending services to impacted family members who are encouraged to write about their experiences and feelings.

Civility requires the willingness to engage – a dispute with a neighbor revealed how much motivation matters The Conversation; by Deborah Mower, Center for Practical Ethics; 7/2/26 ... Civility research matters for ethics education across every discipline, especially fields such as law or medicine where contentious political and moral disagreements are likely to arise. Consider, for instance, the tense conversations between healthcare professionals who disagree about whether the best course of treatment for a patient is to turn to hospice services. Civility has a role to play in the workplace, too, where people need to navigate disagreements with colleagues and also between potentially conflicting professional and legal obligations, client expectations and ethical beliefs. ... Civility isn’t the absence of disagreement, heated disagreement or even outright anger, but continued engagement in the face of and despite such emotion.

From Iowa City to the Rockies: How one social work graduate built a career on connection Iowa University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, School of Social Work; 6/25/26 Since earning her bachelor's degree in social work from Iowa in 2010, Amanda Hebel has spent 15 years helping people navigate life's challenges—from hospice care to rehabilitation services across Colorado. ... Her senior year also brought her practicum placement in hospice care, and it’s where her education became a career. Having lost both of her parents before starting college, Hebel entered the placement with a depth of understanding that shaped how she showed up for patients from day one. The hands-on work—grief counseling, difficult conversations, navigating complex family dynamics—translated directly into the skills she'd carry into the workforce.

Dignity therapy: What matters most in end-of-life care? Medscape; by Irene Salvetti, MD; 7/7/26 ... Many patients, especially in advanced stages of illness, express the fear of no longer being themselves, of becoming a burden, or of losing their sense of meaning, role, and memory. In these experiences, suffering is not merely physical but also related to identity, relationships, and spirituality. The way patients perceive themselves as viewed by others is an important determinant of their sense of dignity. Dignity therapy was developed to give voice to this often-overlooked aspect of the experience of illness. ...  Harvey Max Chochinov introduced dignity therapy as a brief psychotherapeutic intervention for individuals with advanced or terminal illness, with the goal of preserving a sense of personal dignity during times of frailty, dependence, and the approach of death.

How to build trust in a new team and establish psychological safety - fast TylerHayden.com; by Tyler Hayden; 7/6/26 Psychological safety is one of the most talked-about concepts in modern leadership — and one of the least understood in practice. Most leaders know they’re supposed to create it. Far fewer know what it actually looks like when it’s missing, what it feels like when it’s present, or how to build it deliberately and quickly when the clock is ticking and the stakes are real. This post is for those leaders. The ones stepping into a new team, a skeptical room, or a group that’s been burned before — and who need more than theory. ...

Civility requires the willingness to engage - a dispute with a neighbor revealed how much motivation matter The Conversation; by Deborah Mower; 7/2/26 ... I’m an ethicist and moral psychologist who researches moral conviction and civility, which I treat as a respectful approach toward conflict resolution. I’ve spent my career studying misunderstandings and disagreements. I teach students ways to better navigate differing interpretations, complex conversations, moral dilemmas and bitter disputes. Civility research matters for ethics education across every discipline, especially fields such as law or medicine where contentious political and moral disagreements are likely to arise. Consider, for instance, the tense conversations between healthcare professionals who disagree about whether the best course of treatment for a patient is to turn to hospice services.

2 Ann Arbor nurses who transformed how people die mentored her. Then, she became their caregiver.MLive.com, Ann Arbor, MI; by Jennifer Eberback; 6/28/26 For in-home private caregiver Kathy Hopps, caring for two trailblazers who helped revolutionize in-home nursing and hospice care in their final days of life brought her journey full circle. Hopps cared for Ingrid Deininger, who co-founded Individualized Home Nursing Care (IHNC) in Ann Arbor in the early 1980s when hospice and in-home care did not yet have the presence in the U.S. as it does today. ... Now she cares for Lois Jelneck, another IHNC founder who is currently under hospice care at the age of 97.

The impact of educational interventions on nursing students' attitudes towards end-of-life care: a cross-sectional study Nursing Open; by Mayra Veronese and Cristiana Rago; 6/28/26 Aim: To evaluate nursing students' attitudes towards end-of-life care and assess the impact of an elective educational course on shaping these attitudes. Implications for the Profession: Although nursing students exhibited generally positive attitudes towards end-of-life care, theoretical instruction alone proved insufficient to significantly enhance their preparedness for palliative care practice. These findings have direct implications for nursing education and clinical care quality: integrating comprehensive, experiential palliative care education throughout nursing curricula, ...

A day in the life of a Mayo Clinic medical ethicist Healthcare Brew; by Cassie McGrath; 6/24/26 How should doctors handle end-of-life care or use new medical innovations like genetic technologies? How can they ensure they’re fairly and equally providing healthcare? How can providers build trust with patients? These are just a few of the big questions medical ethicists study and advise on. Richard Sharp, a professor of biomedical ethics at Rochester, Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic, is one of these professionals. For decades, he has been a bridge between patients and providers as well as advocates and innovators to ensure medical practices are safe and fair.

Adams County Community Foundation supports Hospice of Hope patient care initiative The Highland County Press, Hillsboro, OH; by John Condon; 6/24/26 The Adams County Community Foundation has awarded a grant to Hospice of Hope to support a special patient-centered initiative designed to provide comfort, dignity and meaningful personal connections for hospice patients and their families. The grant will help fund the creation of personalized “All About Me” boards that will be developed and decorated by Hospice of Hope volunteers for patients receiving hospice care. Each board will highlight important aspects of the patient’s life, including their personal story, favorite things, family memories, and what matters most to them. ... In addition to serving as a communication and memory-sharing tool during hospice care, the boards will remain with families as keepsakes and reminders of their loved one’s life and experiences.

The illusion of choice at the end of life Huffpost Personal; by Jennifer Obel, MD; 6/21/26 After the hospice nurse increased my mother’s morphine drip to ease the feeling of drowning, my mom never spoke to me again. By then, her metastatic lung cancer had taken nearly everything: her strength, her vigor, her independence. What remained was breathlessness that came in waves, each one more frightening than the last. The morphine was meant to quiet her panic and soften the feeling of suffocation. It did. It also closed the door on any final conversation. I was both daughter and oncologist, and the weight of those roles was devastating. I understood what was happening physiologically from decades of treating patients. That knowledge did nothing to make it easier to sit at her bedside, waiting for her to wake, unsure if she could hear me or say goodbye. ...

When the right end-of-life care is hardest to access MedPageToday's KevinMD.com; by Denise Mohess, MD; 6/17/26 The cost of health care in America is extraordinarily high, too often funding the wrong type of care. As a geriatric medicine and palliative care physician, I sit with patients and families making end-of-life decisions, weighing life-prolonging measures, optimizing quality of life, defining what matters most to them. Recently, a 100-year-old man with severe dementia, limited mobility, hearing impairment, requiring assistance for his daily needs, was admitted to the hospital with worsening weakness. ... At a time when care should have eased suffering, the system instead added to it, as the care that best honored his wishes was the hardest to access.

Connecting through emotions: a social constructivist grounded theory on how palliative care clinicians use their emotions during consultations Journal of General Internal Medicine; by Katrien Moens MSc, Johan Bilsen PhD and Sofia C. Zambrano PhD; 6/15/26 Background: Palliative care clinicians are regularly exposed to emotionally laden situations. While emotions are an intrinsic part of their encounters with patients and relatives, the role of clinicians’ own emotions has remained understudied. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that palliative care clinicians use their strong emotions during consultations to build connection. When met with awareness and reflection, these emotions can serve as a valuable resource for delivering patient- and relationship-centered palliative care. Future research should explore clinicians’ training needs and attitudes towards emotional skills training more broadly.