Literature Review

Hospice doctor reveals the loved ones who will visit and those who won’t in your final dreams Upworthy; by Cecily Knobler; 8/1/26 “They had a pivotal role in the formation of who you were.” ... Hospice physician and neurologist Dr. Christopher Kerr, MD, PhD, recently appeared on The Oprah Podcast to discuss his experiences with people as they neared their last breath. After interviewing over 1,500 patients described as being in “lucid” mental states, he has discovered a common theme among the memories of their dreams. ... “End-of-life experiences testify to our greatest need to love and be loved, ... To be nurtured and feel connected. To be remembered and forgiven. They provide continuity between and across lives. ... The most common thing they would dream about is seeing their deceased loved ones. And it wasn’t just anybody. It was those that loved and secured the most. So there’s almost this form of final justice. If somebody withheld love, one parent, they were excluded, but the one who nurtured and loved and secured was included.”

Hospice and Palliative Medicine Advisory Committee Meeting Summary | Spring 2026American Board of Internal Medicince | ABIM Blog, Philadelphia, PA; by ABIM; 7/31/26 The Hospice and Palliative Medicine Advisory Committee held its spring meeting on April 28, 2026. Representatives from the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) and guests from the University of Colorado joined for a portion of the meeting. ... The following is a summary of the spring meeting. ... Furman S. McDonald, MD, MPH, President and CEO of ABIM and the ABIM Foundation, discussed progress on ABIM’s strategic initiatives, including:

Why traditional primary care fails frail elders and the future need for specialized models | part one Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN); podcast hosted by Chris Comeaux with Dr. Bethany Snider; 7/29/26 Traditional primary care wasn't designed for today's frail elders—and that gap may be one of healthcare's greatest challenges. As America's population ages, healthcare leaders face an urgent question: Is the traditional primary care model enough to care for frail older adults with complex medical, functional, and social needs?  In Part One of this thought-provoking conversation, Chris Comeaux welcomes Dr. Bethany Snider, Chief Medical Officer of Everent Health, to explore why the future of serious illness care requires a fundamentally different approach. Together, they unpack the emerging concept of the frail elder practice—a longitudinal, interdisciplinary model that extends beyond office visits to meet patients where they are, both physically and emotionally.

One clinician, every conversation: Palliative care delivery by solo APRN hospitalists in Critical Access HospitalsJournal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing; by Melissa Skoff; 7/26Advanced practice registered nurses (APRN) who practice as solo hospitalists in critical access hospitals are often underrecognized in their role in providing palliative and end-of-life care. This article describes the full scope of the solo APRN hospitalist in a critical access hospital setting with close attention to how complex patient demands contribute to the challenges in providing high-quality end-of-life communications. This article examines clinical, educational, and ethical dimensions of this work, and presents a case example that illustrates how these pressures present during a shift. Strategies to strengthen rural palliative care capacity are discussed, including tele-palliative care, remote ethics support, and APRN-centered education. As rural workforce shortages persist and continue to rise, alongside rising patient acuity, naming and addressing these structural gaps is essential in improving quality of care and protecting the well-being of a solo APRN hospitalist.

Adopting the fourth pillar of acute care surgery: the current state of palliative medicine in trauma care Current Trauma Reports; by Alison Haruta and Kathleen O'Connell; 7/30/26Although most older trauma patients survive hospitalization, many deaths occur within six months after discharge, making early goals-of-care (GOC) discussions essential. However, palliative care consultation remains significantly underused, occurring in only 2–4% of severely injured trauma cases. ... Primary palliative care skills are essential for trauma surgeons, though effective integration into the trauma system has been variable. As the need grows, the specialty palliative care work force cannot keep up with demand, highlighting the need for surgeons to learn and perfect their primary palliative care skills, including communication skills and holistic symptom management. Palliative care should function as a core pillar of trauma care, ensuring dignity, reducing non-beneficial treatments, and improving end-of-life experiences for patients and families.

Physicians: proposed California rule threatens livelihood, providersHospice News; by Jim Parker; 7/28/26Some hospice medical directors contend that proposed emergency regulations in California represent a threat to their livelihood, as well as creating access risks for patients. The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) proposed the rules in June in an effort to combat fraud. Within the 143-page document, the sticking point for physicians is a requirement that, if finalized, would limit hospice medical directors to serving only one hospice. CDPH recently held an online stakeholder meeting regarding the proposal in which several physicians called on the agency to allow medical directors to serve as many as three hospices, or to eliminate the limitation altogether for at least some doctors.

At and end-of-life care home, a young cancer survivor finds his calling  The Buffalo News, Buffalo, NY; by Jon Harris; 7/28/26  Seated in the chapel at Sloan Comfort Care Home, 22-year-old Evan Folsom reflected on what working at the end-of-life facility has meant to him. "The Home did come at the right time for me," said Folsom, hours after finishing an overnight shift there, and a day before taking the daylong Medical College Admission Test. Folsom survived a brain tumor as a toddler and spent years recovering. That alone shaped an interest in medicine. ... His work at Sloan Comfort Care Home helped him come to terms with certain issues and fueled his interest in studying the complex moral and ethical questions that arise in medicine. So he took a "shot in the dark" and applied to Harvard Medical School's Master of Science in Bioethics program, along with a few other schools. He got into all of them but chose Harvard because Boston holds a special full-circle meaning for him. Massachusetts General Hospital, the largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, is where he received treatment as a toddler. "Harvard was specifically deep for me, because that's kind of where my journey started," he said. Folsom leaves for Boston on Aug. 1 ...

Keyser Campus nursing students use VR to assist in training West Virginia University School of Nursing; Press Release; 7/22/26 When students in the WVU School of Nursing Keyser Campus program start classes this fall, they will be aided and assisted by the latest technology that will allow them to explore human anatomy with a view from the inside out. Future nurses at WVU Potomac State College will be assisted in their clinical and lab studies with the use of sophisticated Virtual Reality equipment – state-of-the-art goggles that, through AI technology, allow the wearer to experience conditions, symptoms, and even assess and possibly diagnose conditions within the human body. ... It brings students — albeit digitally — into an autopsy examination, an open heart surgery, or even bedside with a child in the ER getting fitted with a cast for a broken leg.

Caring with confidence: A guided approach to end-of-life careJournal of Pain & Symptom Management; Laura Maldoon, Stacy L. Nilsen; 6/26Nurses may face uncertainty when caring for dying patients due to inadequate education and experience. This uncertainty coupled with varying practices for end-of-life care may affect both care quality and nurses’ attitudes. In nurses caring for hospitalized End-of-Life patients, does having a guided End-of-Life template and care resources, compared to current practices, improve registered nurse attitudes in providing individualized end-of-life care? Two inpatient nursing units received a 30-minute End-of-Life educational intervention utilizing the City of Hope’s Comfort, Airway, Restlessness and Delirium, Emotional and Spiritual Support (CARES) toolset as a standard resource to assess and prioritize end-of-life symptom management and family communication. This project suggests improved comfort and confidence among RNs in providing end-of-life care with the use of the CARES toolset. Nurses also demonstrated increased interest in seeking additional education.

Local nurse goes to Washington DC to meet with elected officials about hospice fraud YubaNet.com, Grass Valley, CA; by Foothills Compassionate Care; 7/22/26 Last month, at end of June, Registered Nurse, Kellie Bolle of Foothills Compassionate Care, traveled to Washington DC to meet with elected officials on the issue of fraud, waste and abuse in hospice care. ... With a rapidly escalating fraud crisis in hospice care, reputable, mission-focused organizations and providers are having to answer for a growing number of bad actors. Foothills Compassionate Care invites the public to an interactive town hall that will include: An update on national efforts to combat hospice fraud, insights from Clinical Care Manager Kellie Bolle, MSN, RN, CHPN, following her advocacy meetings in Washington, D.C., information about how to identify a reputable hospice provider, a discussion of hospice, palliative care, and the Medicare hospice benefit, and an open question-and-answer session with hospice professionals. Free and open to the public. [On Wednesday, July 29, 2026. Go to this article for their RSVP to the public.]

Difficult discussions: How UTC nursing faculty are using AI to teach the hardest conversations in care The University of Tennessee Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN; by Chuck Wasserstrom; 7/20/26 Two University of Tennessee at Chattanooga College of Nursing faculty members recently shared their work on AI-assisted simulation with an international audience, leading a webinar on how the technology can help prepare graduate nurse practitioner students for difficult conversations in palliative care: Dr. Chris Doneski, director of UTC’s acute care nurse practitioner program and a simulation faculty member, and Dr. Rosebelle Peters, nursing simulation program director and senior lecturer. ... The presentation centered on a gap the two faculty members see in graduate nursing education. Doneski said students often receive training in procedures, prescribing and transition to practice, but communication training for difficult situations can be harder to build in meaningful ways. ... The recorded webinar is available through HealthySimulation.com. Users must register for a free account to view it.

Palliative Care team manifests dreams of butterbeer and Harry Potter Vanderbilt Health News, Nashville, TN; by Jill Clendening; 7/20/26 After Mike Guth and his family learned that his pancreatic cancer had advanced beyond treatment, the Vanderbilt Health Palliative Care team worked magic to make a dream trip possible. ... Mike, 53, a beloved high school social studies teacher in southern Indiana and father of four, was diagnosed with Stage 2 pancreatic cancer in early 2025. ... Mike has always loved the magical lore of Harry Potter, excitedly consuming the books and movies with their children (now adults). Mike perhaps seized inspiration from the plot twists of the fantasy series to say he still longed to visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, Florida. With careful planning to manage symptoms and stay on top of hydration, the Vanderbilt Health Palliative Care team surprised the Guths and said his dream was doable. ... Palliative care physician Zack Watson, MD described, "for him to have that time with his kids and his wife. Hopefully, this gave them an anchor of joy in the midst of this really tough time." On July 14, Mike died peacefully at home, surrounded by his loved ones.

Personal experience fuels Jeannie Meyer's commitment to helping the homeless die with dignity UCLA Health; by Sandy Cohen; 7/15/26  The UCLA Health palliative care nurse is a national advocate for recording end-of-life wishes for unhoused individuals. Jeannie Meyer, MSN, didn’t realize she was homeless as a child. She thought everyone moved from place to place, hotel to hotel, and never answered the phone or the door in case a bill collector was on the other side. “I knew what ‘eviction notice’ meant when I was 5 years old,” she says. Those childhood experiences made her empathetic, but it was the pain of learning that her alcoholic father died on Skid Row that inspired Meyer, a palliative care nurse at UCLA Health, to advocate for advance care planning for homeless people.