Literature Review

Polk County home health aide accused of sleeping on the job arrested in man’s death: ‘He was old anyway' Fox 13, Winter Haven, FL; by Fox 13 News Staff; 9/30/24 A home health aide in Polk County is being held without bond after investigators say she fell asleep, and an 86-year-old man died in her care. ... The Polk County Sheriff’s Office says the victim’s family hired around the clock care from Assisting Hands, which consisted of two 12-hour shifts during the day and night. The victim had recently been hospitalized and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. He was also receiving services from Good Shepherd Hospice. ... After the day shift nurse left, investigators say Taylor fell asleep on the couch in the living room, which is against company policy that states she should not have been sleeping. Deputies say Taylor woke up around 1 a.m. on August 16 and heard a thump coming from the victim’s bedroom. According to PCSO, Taylor went into the bedroom and saw the victim lying on his right side, on the floor, with his head wedged in between the nightstand and the bed. She told detectives that she tried to help him back into bed but that he told her not to touch him, so she left him on the floor and did not call anyone, including 911 or her employer, which is against company policy. ... According to the Medical Examiner, had Taylor called 911 when she first found the victim, as required by her own company’s policy, the victim would not have died. The Medical Examiner ruled the victim’s cause of death positional asphyxia with a contributory cause of pre-existing health issues.

Longview hospice adds handmade quilt donations under new management The Daily News; by Minka Atkinson; 9/27/24 At PeaceHealth Ray Hickey Hospice House in Vancouver, patients receive handmade quilts to drape their beds that are then donated to their family as a memento after their passing. PeaceHealth is now looking to bring this tradition to Richard Nau Hospice House, which it took over in November. “It gives the home, cozy feeling to those patients,” Hospice Volunteer Program supervisor Jennifer Linde said. The quilts are sourced through donations from local community groups, like the Kalama Quilters and Calvary Community Church, Linde said. Individual quilters are also welcome to contribute. ...

Man accused of choking terminally ill wife accepts plea deal KSL.com; by Pat Reavy; 9/27/24 A man who prosecutors say attempted to end his terminally ill wife's life by choking her has accepted a plea deal. DeWayne McCulla, 46, pleaded guilty on Thursday in 5th District Court to an amended charge of attempted manslaughter, a third-degree felony. The charge comes with a domestic violence sentencing enhancement. Arenda Lee McCulla, 47, died on Dec. 21, 2021, following her battle with breast cancer. The night before, however, as a small group of family members were by her side in La Verkin, DeWayne McCulla "choked the victim in an attempt to kill her to ease her suffering while they were with her during her terminal cancer and being on hospice," according to charging documents. Other family members pulled McCulla off of his wife.Editor's note: Crucial information that is not reported in this article: Where was the hospice team in managing this patient's pain? In educating and supporting the caregiver (the husband?) and family about contacting the hospice? In making required visits when the patient is actively dying? In assessing the caregiver's ability to provide care, especially any history or risks of domestic violence, neglect, or abuse? What safety-in-the-home protocols were used by this hospice, especially when hospice team members followed up? Aware of not-knowing these many factors, I do not ask these with judgment but rather to raise awareness of core, preventive measures for other hospice patients.

Grief memoir: Diapers and hospice We Are The Mighty; by Jessica Hall; 9/25/24 This is Chapter 8 in [Jessica Hall's] Grief Memoir. ... Following our trip to Disneyland, I was in the homestretch for my pregnancy. I was worried about what would happen when Dad went into the hospital again. What if it happened when I was in active labor? What if I was in a sleep-deprived haze with a newborn? How do I care for Dad when I’m far away and can’t travel? ... In the days before my planned induction, Dad was taken off intubation and was doing well enough. ... [Later in the story ...] I had given birth just two weeks before but I started to move quickly to go home. I started doing laundry so the baby and I could fly home to say goodbye to Dad. ...

Bereaved mum shares 'what not to say' in new book BBC News; by Roger Johnson and Jonny Humphries; 9/24/24 A bereaved mother has written a book exploring the sensitive topic of how to speak to a parent struck by the loss of a child. Singer and entertainer Kiki Deville, from Earby, said she felt as if she would "never experience joy again" after losing her four-week-old son Dexter in 2007. Dexter died from the rare genetic condition Zellweger Syndrome and spent his last days in Chorley children's hospice Derian House, of which Ms. Deville is now a patron.  Her work there, including countless conversations with other parents, informed her book 'What Not To Say: A Practical Guide to Supporting Bereaved Parents'. Ms. Deville said 17 years after the loss of Dexter, she still remembers the first time someone made the well-meaning but painful comment: "At least he was just a baby." "Now that infers were he older, his death would have mattered more," she told the BBC.  From speaking to other mothers, Ms. Deville also gave examples such as "at least you have other children" and "they're in a better place" as things not to say. She said: "It's really important to recognise that nobody says anything out of malice, I don't think anybody sets out to hurt."Editor's note, calling all non-clinical hospice and palliative care leaders: Your interactions with bereaved parents speak volumes. Do you convey cheap platitudes or wise empathy? Incorporate these human vulnerabilities into your leadership skills. Open yourself to the pain of experiencing the pain and joys of your organization's palliative/hospice pediatric families. Invest a day of shadowing with a pediatric interdisciplinary team member. Be willing to go there. Be willing to be there: physically, mentally,  emotionally, and spiritually (without imposing your own onto others).

From pigs to payouts, weighing solutions for the US kidney shortageHealthcare Brew; by Caroline Catherman; 9/18/24About one out of every 20 people waiting for a kidney transplant die each year, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. Scientists, policymakers, and other experts are scrambling to find a solution. Kidneys are currently the most needed organ in the country, and an ongoing crisis has left tens of thousands in limbo. As of September, nearly 90,000 people in the US are waiting for kidneys, but only around 27,000 transplants were performed in 2024, according to data from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN).Publisher's note: Hospice Analytics, a Hospice & Palliative Care Today sponsor, posted this blog and has given presentations on opportunities and challenges for hospices to honor patient wishes regarding organ and tissue donation.

Wind phones help the bereaved deal with death, loss and grief − a clinical social worker explains the vital role of the old-fashioned rotary phone The Conversation; by Taryn Lindhorst; 9/20/24 My mother died in my home in hospice in 2020, on the day my state of Washington went into COVID-19 lockdown. Her body was taken away, but none of the usual touchstones for grief were available to our family. ... As a clinical social worker and health scholar with 40 years of experience in end-of-life care and bereavement, I knew that I needed some way to tend to my grief for my mother. While in lockdown, I began looking for resources to help me. Then I heard about the wind phone. What is a wind phone? At its simplest, a wind phone is a rotary or push-button phone located in a secluded spot in nature, usually within a booth-type structure and often next to a chair or bench. The phone line is disconnected. People use the wind phone to “call” and have a one-way conversation with deceased loved ones. Here they can say the things left unsaid. Wind phones offer a setting for the person to tell the story of their grief, to reminiscence and to continue to connect to the person who is gone. For many, it is a deeply moving, life-affirming experience. About 200 wind phones are scattered throughout the United States. Editor's note: This creative tool is similar to common clinical tools of writing a letter to the deceased person, and the "Empty Chair" technique. Caution: This should never be used as a gimmick. This can be terribly confusing and upsetting for persons with dementia, or supportive if used with professional sensitivity for the patient's awareness and experience. For persons with dementia, be familiar with the ground-breaking "Validation Therapy" techniques by Naomi Feil. 

Families value flexibility and compassion in end-of-life care for children with cancerOncology Nurse Advisor; by Megan Garlapow, PhD; 9/18/24 Bereaved families of children who died of cancer expressed a strong desire for high-quality end-of-life care that balanced comfort with continued treatment efforts, particularly chemotherapy, according to results from a study published in Cancer. Families did not perceive a conflict between comfort care and the pursuit of chemotherapy, seeking both as integral parts of their child’s final days. Despite variations in race and location, there was no clear preference for home or hospital deaths, with the median preference score being neutral at 3.0 on a 5-point Likert scale, ... Instead, decisions surrounding the location of death were often driven by the child’s preferences, medical needs, the impact on other family members, and prior experiences with death. ... Family decision-making was centered on maintaining hope, avoiding harm, and doing what was best for their child and themselves, with religious beliefs playing a significant role.

The catalyst for a 25% drop in sepsis mortality at Jefferson Health Becker's Clinical Leadership; by Erica Carbajal; 9/19/24 In the healthcare quality space, clinicians must track a plethora of metrics and measures, creating an environment where it can be easy to lose focus of ongoing priorities. To help center focus and ensure alignment of clinical priorities, Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health developed a quality and safety management system called OnPoint, which is now in place across all of its 17 hospitals. ... The platform is central to strides Jefferson Health has made in managing sepsis in recent years, ... Since 2021, the system has achieved a 25% reduction in average annual sepsis mortality, which is estimated to have saved the lives of nearly 700 patients and $30 million in costs.

Death is no enemy Psychiatric Times; by Sidney Zisook, MD; 9/17/24... As mental health clinicians, we often confine our conversations about death and dying to recognizing suicide risk and preventing suicide. And for good reason. Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the United States, ... Far less attention is paid by mental health clinicians to other aspects of death and dying. But we are human, first and foremost, and coping with a host of issues related to the end of life is inextricably bound to both our professional and personal lives. Like it or not, death is part of life. We, as mental health clinicians, are not always as prepared as we would like to be to help ourselves, our loved ones, our patients, and their loved ones deal with loss, dying, death, and bereavement. For many physicians, 1 or 2 hours in medical school and perhaps another few hours during residency are all the training we receive in these complex and challenging clinical issues. ...  Chochinov provides a clinician’s guide for “being with” dying patients. He offers ways of providing intensive caring to enhance empathy, respect, connectivity, and hope, and to make the experience of a dying patient more tolerable than it otherwise might be. ... I have utilized his Patient Dignity Question, which asks, “What do I need to know about you as a person to take the best care of you possible?” on several occasions with gratifying results for both the patient and me.

Family members' health can suffer when relative has cancer: Study Becker's Hospital Review; by Elizabeth Gregerson; 9/13/24 Individuals are at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and psychological illness after a family member is diagnosed with cancer, according to a study published Sept. 9 in Cancer. Researchers from institutions across the U.S. analyzed data of patients diagnosed with genitourinary cancer between 1990 and 2015 who had first-degree relatives or spouses, from the Utah Population Database. The cohort of 49,284 patients and 77,938 relatives was matched with a similar control group and followed up within one-, three- and five-year periods. Among patients with genitourinary cancer, their family members had a "10% increased risk of developing a psychological illness and a 28% increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease" one year after diagnosis, according to the study. "This study provides population-level evidence to support the hypothesis that cancer diagnoses will lead to adverse health outcomes for family members of patients with cancer," the study authors wrote.

The 9 college majors that lead to the most fulfilling careers ... NBC 7 San Diego, CA; by Kamaron McNair; 9/14/24 If you want your degree to help you land a fulfilling job, consider studying music therapy. The medical and therapeutic fields are among the college majors helping graduates get jobs that make the world a better place, according to graduates surveyed in a recent Payscale report.24/7 San Diego news stream: Watch NBC 7 free wherever you are Alumni with bachelor's degrees in music therapy are most likely to do this kind of fulfilling work, with 95% of degree-holders saying their work makes the world a better place, Payscale finds. Music therapy programs cover coursework in music, music therapy, science and psychology, according to the American Music Therapy Association. ... Music therapists may work in traditional settings, offering services to clients working through physical disabilities or mental health issues. People in hospice care, substance abuse programs and cancer treatment centers have also benefited from music therapist visits, according to the AMTA.Editor's note: Click here for facts and descriptions about "Music Therapy in Hospice Care," by the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA). To recruit a certified music therapist for hospice (or other setting), visit AMTA's Job Hotline.  

Age-friendly care: What it is and how reporters should cover itAssociation of Health Care Journalists; by Liz Seegert; 9/13/24You may have heard of age-friendly care... Age-friendly care, an initiative of The Institute for Health Care Improvement and The John A. Hartford Foundation, is modeled on the evidence-based 4Ms framework: