Literature Review

This holiday season, give the gift of conversation: Help residents and families talk about end-of-life care McKnights Senior Living; by Tom Koutsoumpas; 12/21/25 The holidays are a season of connection — when families gather, share stories and reflect on what truly matters most. For senior living communities and nursing homes, this time of togetherness presents an important opportunity to encourage meaningful, values-based conversations about end-of-life care. ... At the National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation, our 5-Point Guide: Start a Conversation About Care Planning provides a simple and clear roadmap to help individuals and families start those discussions. For senior living and care leaders, those same five points can be transformed into community-based strategies that make advance care planning approachable and empowering.

End-of-life care needs cultural humility and social justice BMJ; by Jamilla Akhter Hussain, Rekha Vijayshankar, and Mary Hodgson; 12/18/25 Death, dying, and grief are not medical events—they are profoundly social, relational, and shaped by the histories people carry into their final days. ... [A] key question is: how can end-of-life care services become more trustworthy? Too often, institutions respond with so-called cultural competency initiatives. ... What is needed is cultural humility and social justice. Cultural humility involves ongoing self-reflection and acknowledgement of bias at individual, organisational, and system levels. Palliative care must prioritise cultural humility and social justice: trust grows not through outreach alone but through shared creation of knowledge, meaning, and care—and at the end of life ...

IAHPC photo contest: We have our winners! International Association for Hospice & Palliative Care (IAHPC); 12/18/25 Our members submitted an incredible array of images that expressed moving moments, illustrated challenges, and showed the beauty of palliative care in their daily work. It required four rounds of judging by our five-member panel, plus a Zoom meeting at the end, to narrow the selection of 186 photos sent in and settle on the winners. [View]

25 years of progress: ELNEC and AACN transforming palliative nursing education Journal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing - JHPN / HPNA; by Cassandra Godzik, PhD, APRN, CNE, Deborah Trautman, PhD, RN, FAAN, Robert Rosseter, MBA, MS, FAAN, Pamela Malloy, MN, RN, FPCN,Jennifer DiBenedetto, PhD, APRN, Polly Mazanec, PhD, AOCN, ACHPN, FPCN, FAAN; 12/25 In the year 2000, leaders with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing joined with Dr. Betty Ferrell and her colleagues at City of Hope to address gaps in how nurses are educated to care for patients at the end-of-life and their families. ... To date, more than 1.7 million nurses have been educated with the ELNEC curriculum, and more than 1200 undergraduate and 440 graduate schools of nursing offer ELNEC training in palliative end-of-life care. The remarkable academic-practice partnership at the heart of ELNEC has dramatically changed nursing care for patients with serious illnesses and their families in the United States and globally. ... Editor's Note: As ELNEC celebrates its 25th anniversary, we honor a leadership legacy that has transformed nursing education and elevated end-of-life care worldwide. What began as a visionary collaboration between AACN and Dr. Betty Ferrell at City of Hope has become a global standard—preparing nurses for clinical excellence, compassionate presence, and interdisciplinary care. With deep appreciation, we celebrate Dr. Betty Ferrell, ELNEC, AACN, City of Hope, and the leaders who continue to champion this vital work forward.

Holiday considerations with a loved one on hospice Emmanuel Hospice, Grand Rapids, MI; 12/8/25 What kind of gift do you give someone receiving hospice care? How do you celebrate knowing it might be your last holiday with a loved one? Suffice to say, the holiday season brings difficult challenges for families going through an end-of-life journey. While gatherings and gifts might look different, Joan Blessings with Emmanuel Hospice says it can still be a cherished time with the right support from friends, family and hospice care team members. ...  She’s found that engaging different senses is one way to include patients in holiday festivities.

[Europe] Muslims often don’t trust palliative care. A new charity aims to change that  Hyphen; by Weronika Stryzyzynska; 12/15/25 Al-Amal, founded by a doctor and a chaplain, is informed by the Muslim view of a good death — something they say is lacking in mainstream care. A new charity to support Muslims navigating palliative care is preparing to launch after Ramadan. As well as providing an emotional support telephone line, Al-Amal will also offer practical advice on accessing culturally and religiously appropriate care.  The Muslim view of what a good death looks like is informed by values beyond the medical. … This can affect the way Muslim patients include their families in the decision-making process or their approach to pain management.

Palliative care interventions for caregivers of people with advanced dementia: A meta-analysis Sigma Global Nursing Excellence - Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing; by Ita Daryanti Saragih, Ira Suarilah, Hsun-Kuei Ko, Ice Septriani Saragih, Bih-O Lee; 12/11/25 Conclusion: Palliative care interventions were successful in reducing conflict in decision-making of caregivers of people with advanced dementia. ... Linking Evidence to Action: Future palliative care interventions for caregivers of advanced dementia patients should focus on developing the contents of palliative care materials based on evidence-based evaluations and explore strategies to improve engagement between patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals.

[Canada] Rethinking palliative care through three institutional ethnographic stories of people living with homelessness and life-limiting illnessINQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, & Financing; by Courtney R. Petruik, Katrina Milaney; 11/25Fifteen to thirty percent of Canadians have access to palliative care, with even fewer access opportunities for people with experiences of homelessness. Part of a larger study, this paper examines how health and social systems shape the need for community-based palliative and end-of-life care, using 3 stories from clients of the Community Allied Mobile Palliative Partnership (CAMPP). Findings reveal systemic demands like renewing insurance for medical equipment, restrictive housing rules, and standardized hospital protocols that overwhelm capacities of many people with experiences of homelessness. Community-based palliative teams like CAMPP fill critical gaps in mainstream services by tailoring care to complex social realities.

The ethical challenge of negative compassion: How excessive empathy in end-of-life care affects decision-making and patient autonomy Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing; by Victoria Pérez-Rugosa, Gina Lladó-Jordan, Pablo de Lorena-Quintal, Esther Domínguez-Valdés, Antonia Rodríguez-Rodríguez, Carmen Sarabia-Cobo; 12/11/25 Online ahead of print ... 3 key themes emerged: decision paralysis and emotional overload, conflicts between personal beliefs and professional responsibilities, and institutional barriers to ethical practice. Findings reveal that excessive emotional involvement can hinder the implementation of patients' documented wishes, potentially compromising patient autonomy and increasing caregiver distress. The study highlights the need for institutional policies that support emotional resilience, structured debriefing, and ethics training. ... These insights are highly relevant for palliative nursing practice, offering guidance for supporting staff and upholding patient-centered care in end-of-life settings.

Palliative care improves outcomes in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD), with Crawford Strunk, MD Consultant Live; by Crawford Strunk, MD; 12/8/25 Incorporating a palliative care team into a comprehensive sickle cell disease (SCD) care center substantially reduced inpatient length of stay and improved outpatient pain management, according to a recent study. ...  Additionally, the study authors noted plans to continue examining the efficacy of palliative care regarding cost savings and broader applicability outside of SCD patients.