Literature Review

Palliative social workers' contributions to cultivating prognostic awareness: A qualitative study using the Prognostic Awareness Impact Scale frameworkJournal of Palliative Medicine; Arden E O'Donnell, Juliet Jacobsen, Rennie Bimman, Sarah Stone, Taylor B Wensley, Judith G Gonyea; 9/26Prognostic awareness is central to informed, value-concordant care for patients with serious illness. Although often conceptualized as cognitive understanding of a time-based prognosis, emerging research highlights prognostic awareness as a multidimensional process involving cognitive understanding, emotional coping, and adaptive response. Objective: To describe the strategies hospital-based specialty-level palliative social workers use to cultivate prognostic awareness, using the Prognostic Awareness Impact Scale (PAIS) framework of cognitive understanding, emotional coping, and adaptive response. Conclusions: APHSW-C SWs play an important role in supporting patients' and families' understanding of the likely disease trajectory and prognosis, viewing their work as an ongoing, relational, and emotionally mediated process. Findings suggest that the PAIS may offer a useful framework for identifying profession-specific contributions to this process.

Geographic disparities in hospice quality and family caregiver experience: the roles of ownership, social vulnerability, and workforce capacity arXiv; by Jinho Cha and Misun Roh; 9/29/26  Hospice quality should be interpreted in relation to both provider organization and the local conditions under which care is delivered. This study develops a provider-county performance assessment framework by linking national Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) hospice data and Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) Hospice Survey outcomes with county measures of rurality, social vulnerability, health burden, and workforce and health-resource context. The adjusted analysis includes 2,928 providers in 1,078 counties and combines geographic mapping, blockwise regression, six secondary CAHPS outcomes, and eight sensitivity analyses.

A Florida social worker stole $68,000 from an Alzheimer’s patient, state says The Miami Herald | The Lawton Constitution; by David J. Neal; 9/28/26 What was in a social worker’s wallet? A Capital One card on which she made almost $100,000 worth of payments, West Palm Beach police say, by ripping off an Alzheimer’s patient and a dying patient under her care. In Palm Beach County court, Port St. Lucie’s Megan Bernat pleaded not guilty to criminal charges of exploitation of an elderly person and money laundering in the case involving the deceased patient. ... Professionally, Bernat didn’t bother to answer a Florida Department of Health administrative complaint detailing the charges in the Alzheimer patient’s case. So, the Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling revoked her license on Wednesday.

At the bedside: clinician grief Core IM; podcast by Dr. Margot Hedlin, Dr. Danai Papadatou, Dr. Tamar Schiff and Dr. Jafar Al-Mondhiry; 9/8/26... "I can’t share his name, but I can tell you what he taught me about grief. I met this patient a few months after graduating from medical school, and by that point he was already dying. ... I grieved for this man the way I’ve grieved for many patients: I found a supply closet to cry in for a few minutes before my pager went off. But in the years since, years in which I worked at the epicenter of the COVID pandemic, worked nights at a cancer hospital, and suffered personal loss, I’ve found that grief is too large to be stuffed in a supply closet: when left unaddressed, it keeps coming back, in ways and places that I couldn’t predict."

Palliative and psycho-oncology care: Dr. Ramy Sedhom on patient distress signs Oncology Nursing News; by Alex Biese; 9/21/26Ramy Sedhom, MD, of Penn Medicine Princeton Health discusses blending palliative care with psycho-oncology to treat patient distress in oncology care. ... In this Q&A with Oncology Nursing News, Sedhom discusses strategies for bridging historical silos between palliative care and psycho-oncology, debunks persistent misconceptions surrounding supportive interventions in curative settings, and identifies clinical red flags for unseen distress. 

Top ten tips palliative care clinicians should know when caring for seriously ill patients with stimulant use disordersJournal of Palliative Medicine; by Rebekka DePew, Nicole Dussault, Kyle Quirk, Erin Vipler, Josh Borris, Sandra DiScala, Teddy Scheel, Katrina Nickels, Gregg Robbins-Welty, Janet Ho; 8/26Stimulant use disorder (StUD) is common in the hospice and palliative care (PC) setting, though guidance for clinicians remains limited. Stigma around stimulant use is widespread and can lead to impaired clinician/patient communication, poor symptom control, and lower quality of care. PC clinicians should be able to diagnose StUD, understand the potential pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic management options, engage with patients in a trauma-informed way, and refer to addiction medicine colleagues when appropriate. When utilizing opioids for pain management, PC clinicians should be aware of the impact of stimulant use on opioid risk and toxicity. In this article, a multidisciplinary group of PC, hospice, addiction medicine, psychiatry, ethics, and pharmacy clinicians presents ten practical tips for caring for seriously ill patients with current or prior StUD.

Medicine on screen: 10 films doctors may want to rewatch Medscape; by Medscape's editorial team; 8/24/26 Cinema has long portrayed medicine through many different lenses: from the perspectives of doctors and patients to those of friends and family, whether set in hospital wards or research laboratories. This curated selection of classic and contemporary films explores care, illness, and hospital life from strikingly different angles — some realistic, some visionary, and others deeply unsettling. Together, they aim to refocus attention on medicine not only as a science, but as a profoundly human experience. 10 Films Every Doctor Should (Re)Watch:

Priorities for advancing palliative care for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: a consensus report from a palliative care for ALS working group in the United States Muscle & Nerve; by Kara E. Bischoff, Yaowaree L. Leavell, Jessica M. Besbris, Christi Lero, Kelsey Noble, Astrid Grouls, Jerome Kurent, Benzi M. Kluger, Steven Z. Pantilat, Ambereen K. Mehta, on behalf of the International Neuropalliative Care Society's Palliative Care for ALS Working Group; 8/31/2026 The Palliative Care for ALS Working Group was formed within the International Neuropalliative Care Society, consisting of interprofessional ALS and palliative care clinicians, researchers, advocates, and patients and care partner representatives who are committed to improving palliative care for people living with ALS. The group engaged in a strategic planning process to determine what is needed to advance palliative care for people with ALS over the next 3–5 years. This report outlines the core recommendations from that strategic planning process. Recommendations are divided into five sections: (1) clinician education, (2) clinical service expansion, (3) research, (4) public awareness, and (5) policy change. Editor's Note: ALS is an especially devastating, demanding disease for patients, caregivers and families, for your clinical staff and volunteers. What disease-specific education and resources do you provide? How many ALS patients have your organization served in "x" years? Do you partner in any way with your regional ALS association? For non-clinical leaders, an important, easy distinction for you to remember the clinical, deeply personal differences between ALS versus ALZ: 

Why Hospice Austin is training frontline staff on specialized dementia care KXAN Austin, TX; by Avery Travis; 8/26/26 A Central Texas hospice service received national recognition for investing in dementia-specific training and certification for frontline caregivers, as the impact of dementia grows in the United States. According to Hospice Austin and Austin Palliative Care, it recently became the only hospice organization in the country to be named to the National Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners' Memory Care Excellence Network. Diana Wagner, the Director of Education and Training at Hospice Austin and Austin Palliative Care, spoke to KXAN's Avery Travis and Will DuPree about the nuance needed to care for someone with dementia at the end of their life. ... Wagner said her team worked to certify more than 70% of their frontline staff in dementia care.

Housing instability complicates end‑of‑life care for aging unhoused populationsThe Miami Times; Pilar Ingle; 8/25/26 ... Nationally, 771,480 people — the highest number ever recorded — experienced homelessness in 2024. As the number of people experiencing homelessness in the U.S. grows, so too does the need for palliative and end-of-life care for these individuals. ... Research has found that specialized health care in general is more effective and affirming for unhoused individuals than traditional health services. Examples of such specialized palliative programs in the U.S. and internationally include the Rocky Mountain Refuge, the INN Between and the Harborview Homeless Palliative Care Team in the U.S., and Palliative Education and Care for the Homeless in Canada.

Dying man’s final wish comes true as his beloved dogs find a forever home together Greater Good; by Guest Contributor; 8/25/26 A man in New York spent his final weeks with one hope on his mind: that his beloved German shepherds would find a new forever home. His story, and the story of his dogs Bowie and Nikki, has moved thousands of people who care deeply about pet adoption and the special bond between humans and animals. At its core, this is a story about love, planning for pets when life changes, and the quiet heroism of animal rescues that step in when families are in crisis. ... One of the most moving moments in this story came when Mr. Spencer asked for something that many pet guardians nearing the end of life quietly hope for. He wanted to say goodbye.