Literature Review

Videos help increase communication of care goals for hospitalized older adultsNational Institute on Aging; 1/11/24A video intervention delivered to older hospital patients by palliative care educators helped increase communication and documentation of care preferences. These findings, published in JAMA Network Open, are from a study led by NIA-funded Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital researchers.

Courageous Parents Network: Decade of helping parents cope with grief and lossFig City News, by Julie M. Cohen; 1/9/24“The reason grief can be so hard is because it can feel so isolating,” Julia Ong reflected while discussing the 2021 death of her younger child, Avery. Even before their daughter died, the Newton resident and her husband, Jordan Bray, experienced the crushing weight of grief upon learning the baby’s diagnosis. They soon learned about a Newton-based nonprofit, the Courageous Parents Network (CPN). The organization, which in 2024 is marking its 10th anniversary, “orients and empowers parents and others caring for children with serious medical conditions, by providing resources and tools that reflect the experience and perspective of other families and clinicians,” according to its website ...

Humana wins $360M in Walgreens drug price settlementModern Healthcare, by Lauren Berryman; 1/8/24Walgreens will pay Humana $360 million to resolve allegations the pharmacy chain overcharged the health insurer for prescription drugs.

Upcoming e-prescribing regs could give relief to hospice, palliative care providers, advocates sayMcKnights Home Care, by Adam Healy; 1/5/24Proposed rules, if finalized, could make it easier for providers to prescribe controlled substances via telemedicine. The Drug Enforcement Administration is expected to develop a “special registry” for certain controlled substances that could be prescribed without an in-person visit, according to Katy Barnett, director of home care and hospice operations and policy at LeadingAge. Certain substances were already granted similar prescription flexibilities during the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE); a new registry would subject these substances to oversight by the DEA.

Wings of togetherness: National nonprofit providing flights for families of New Braunfels Hope Hospice veterans

Young paperboy volunteers for hospice in memory of grandparents BNN, by Ayesha Mumtaz; 1/3/24Jack Hartley, a 14-year-old paperboy, has taken up a noble cause close to his heart. Channeling personal loss into community service, Jack is volunteering his time to distribute leaflets for the East Cheshire Hospice, an organization that holds deep significance for him and his family. Both of Jack’s grandparents, Philip and Olwen Hobson, received care at the hospice before their demise just three months apart in 2015.Editor's Note: I wish the word "demise" had not been used, as it has (to this reader) negative connotations similar to the word "expired," for life's natural processes of dying and death. Otherwise, this story might spark ideas for creative ways to involve younger volunteers--with appropriate parental / adult supervision--for other meaningful ways to contribute toward your hospice mission.

A medication mistake cost a Lockport woman her life. A new grant aims to help others avoid same fateThe Buffalo News, by Scott Scanlon; 1/2/24 In a perfect health care system, patients who ended up in the hospital would start to feel better soon and go home with a recovery plan, along with any medications designed to help in that process. ... “All medications have side effects, and some are especially harmful in older adults,” UB officials said in announcing a four-year, $1.95 million grant focused on improving medication prescribing.

Is healthcare ready to embrace more young nurses?Becker's Clinical Leadership, by Erica Carbajal; 12/31/23In conversations about the nursing shortage, healthcare leaders often underscore the importance of building a pipeline by stirring interest among younger generations, and getting in front of high schoolers and middle schoolers. But is the industry fully ready to embrace more young nurses? ... Generally speaking, anyone under the age of 18 would not be able to secure full-time employment as a hospital nurse, but in the coming years, healthcare organizations could see a rise in the number of nurse applicants who've earned their degrees in their late teens or early 20s, particularly as they ramp up efforts to market the profession to especially young populations.

Social determinants of health predict outcomes in hematologic cancersHematologyAdvisor, by Jonathan Goodman, MPhil; 12/27/23A systematic review published in Blood Advances suggested that several social determinants of health (SDHs) may affect survival disparities among patients with hematological conditions. Notably, insurance status, household income, education attained, and marital status all appear to affect survival likelihood in this patient population.

Death doulas a growing trend in end-of-life careAlbany Times-Union, by Wendy Liberatore; 12/31/23SARATOGA SPRINGS — As a young woman lay dying, one of her last acts was to write several cards to each of her small children. Each held a special message to be opened on a special day – graduation, wedding, the birth of their first child. But the young mother might not have been able to do this without the inspiration of a death or end-of-life doula – a person who helps their terminal clients reach their final goals, as a way to die peacefully.

What do people dream about before they die? Doctors mention this one common detail24/7 News Agency, 12/25/23A study from 2020 confirms that patients who experienced such symptoms became stronger and mentally stronger. There was peace coming from them. The family and relatives of the dying person claimed that being aware of this information helped them go through the mourning process more smoothly. Christopher Kerr, a cardiologist and director of the Hospice and Palliative Care Center in Buffalo, as well as the author of the book “Death is Just a Dream”, is one of the first people who decided to explore the topic of dreams occurring just before death.

Rethinking immunotherapy for cancer: When is the best time to stop?Wall Street Journal, by Brianna Abbott and Jared S. Hopkins; 12/26/23Halting treatments earlier could spare patients side effects and costs, but researchers face obstacles.

Nurses ‘bridge the gap’ between patients, doctors to talk end-of-life careCure, by Alex Biese; 12/22/23For patients with cancer and their caregivers, nurses can play an integral role when it comes to communicating wishes for end-of-life care, as one expert explained to CURE®. “Nurses bridge the gap, I feel, oftentimes, between the medical community and patients and caregivers, because … especially with the patients with cancer, they may be getting infusions, or different kinds of treatments, so there's a fair amount of time when nurses are in and out of the room or they're attending to the patients, etc., where physicians obviously wouldn't necessarily be there,” said Sara Douglas, a Gertrude Perkins Oliva professor in oncology nursing at Case Western Reserve University’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing in Cleveland.