Literature Review

‘It’s a collaborative effort’: Northern Light Medical Transport paramedics providing hospice supportWABI-5, Bangor, ME; by Alyssa Thurlow; 2/19/26 ... Paramedics can help patients across Maine with a variety of needs, but some are embracing a slower-paced role, focused on assisting those who are at the end of life. “Patients have access to care 24/7, and part of that coverage for after-hours is now coming through the community paramedicine program,” said hospice educator Allie Rohrer, RN. ... “It’s not with lights and sirens. It’s very low key. It’s driving there in a car, and then it’s talking through the issues,” said paramedic Ed Moreshead. ... Northern Light’s community paramedics are contracted with Northern Light Home Care & Hospice. Families in need of assistance call the triage number, and a hospice nurse and on-call physician can respond if needed.

Comparison of patients seen by an embedded social worker and nurse practitioner palliative care model in hospital medicine versus referral-based specialty palliative care and their acute care utilization outcomes Journal of Palliative Medicine; by Laura P Gelfman, Li Zeng, Keisha Bergland, Elizabeth Rizzo, Cheyenne Higgins, Claire Doucette, Krishna Chokshi, Emily Chai; 2/17/26 Background: Hospitalized patients with serious illness often face delayed or limited access to palliative care. Embedded hospital primary palliative care (HPPC), led by social workers and nurse practitioners, may deliver more timely, needs-based support compared with referral-based specialty palliative care (SPC). Conclusions: An embedded SW/NP-led palliative care model in hospital medicine improves access, reduces acute care use, and is sustainable over time. This approach supports timely, culturally sensitive, needs-based palliative care and may be scalable for hospital-based delivery.

How to plan for a ‘good death,’ according to a VCU researcher VCU News, Virginia Commonwealth University; by Madeline Reinsel; 2/16/26 People talk a lot more about death than dying. That’s according to Yifan Lou, Ph.D., a Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work assistant professor who studies how expectations around death and end-of-life care differ across cultures. ... “My job is really trying to understand different populations and then help design a policy and health care system that can support their value of the good death.” Planning for a good death requires patients and families to make decisions around hospice care, pain management, quality of life, financial affairs and long-term care, ideally alongside a social worker.

What can we learn from death in the age of longevity? Time; by Arianna Huffington; 2/16/26 ... Research on those at the end of life shows that our values change as death approaches. At the end, we don’t crave more status or more things, but more connection. A study on terminally ill patients found that common reflections include concern for loved ones, gratitude, and spirituality. Another found that the most commonly discussed topics included accepting one's imperfections, celebrating and appreciating what you have, giving, and service to others. And a study of hospice patients found that they showed “the desire to grow and change at this critical time.” If hospice patients can grow and change at the end of life, why not grow and change now? ... It is a surprising, but important, lesson to learn: bringing death into our lives is what paradoxically allows us to live more fully.  

How an ethics course can prep you for med school: It can strengthen communication and empathy and help with complex treatment and research decisions. U.S. News & World; by Neha Raju; 2/10/26 Medical school applicants often focus on the most tangible parts of preparation: grades, MCAT scores, clinical hours and research. Ethics courses, when considered at all, are sometimes treated as peripheral or “nice to have” rather than genuinely useful. That view misses how central ethical reasoning has become ...

How ‘rest’ became the biggest four-letter word in healthcareMedscape; by Eric Spitznagel; 1/30/26As a resident at Yale New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut, he did his best to get enough of it, which wasn’t often. Even when he managed a full night’s sleep, it didn’t bring the relief he expected. His body might slow down, but his mind didn’t. “My mind kept racing through patient records,” Jacobs said. “So even sitting on the couch wasn’t helping.” He was on the cusp of understanding what few healthcare workers figure out: True rest requires more than lying down. It requires something that pulls your attention out of the mental loops that medicine trains clinicians to spin 24/7. ...

Galactic Symphony thrills young hospice patient Lovin' Life; by Lin Sue Flood; 2/1/26 A quiet backyard suddenly burst into song with the stirring brass of John Williams Star Wars theme recently, transforming a regular afternoon into a Galactic Symphony. For 26-year-old Anthony Castle, a lifelong Star Wars superfan, it was like watching the magic of the big screen come to life. Through a unique partnership between Hospice of the Valley and the Phoenix Symphony, six professional musicians arrived at Anthonys home to perform a private medley. To the delight of Anthony who proudly wore his Baby Yoda T-shirt several of the performers arrived in character, dressed as Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker.

Integrating psychiatric and hospice services: Legal and clinical considerations for involuntary commitment in multimorbid end-of-life care American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine; by Ilana Marmershteyn, BS, Darian Peters, BS, Victor Milev, BS, Mario Jacomino, MD, MPH, and George Luck, MD, FAAHPM; 1/28/26  Multimorbid patients at the end-of-life face complex medical, psychosocial, and psychiatric challenges. Hospice care aims to address physical, emotional, and spiritual needs; however, psychiatric comorbidities, particularly acute crises, remain under-recognized and inconsistently managed. The intersection of psychiatric intervention, hospice care, and legal frameworks such as involuntary commitment presents significant clinical and ethical challenges.

Briana Kohlbrenner: End-of-life care is under threat - as demand for hospice grows, workers say staffing and pay must keep paceVTDigger, Vermont; commentary by Briana Kohlbrenner; 1/27/26 As demand for hospice grows, workers say staffing and pay must keep pace. University of Vermont Home Health and Hospice (UVMHHH) is at a crossroads. As Vermont’s population ages, the demand for hospice care is growing. ... We are asking for fair and transparent pay scales, safe staffing and equity within the UVM Health system. Though we wear the same logo on our badges, we are paid less than our counterparts in other parts of the UVM Health system. A new nurse starting at UVM Home Health and Hospice earns $6.72 less per hour than a new nurse at the UVM Medical Center.

Husband with Parkinson's was admitted into at-home hospice program and has dramatically improved. Have others experienced this? Aging Care; by Klwolf; 1/21/26 My DH has Parkinson’s that has been getting progressively worse for months. In early December we had him assessed for hospice and he was admitted. Since then, he’s improved dramatically. Has anyone else experienced dramatic improvement AFTER hospice enrollment? The hospice staff simply shrugs and says this sometimes happens and that we need to be prepared for him to revert back to his previous state. Editor's Note: Many clinicians have seen individuals improve after hospice enrollment, often due to better symptom control, reduced stress, or consistent interdisciplinary care. The concern here is not the improvement itself, but the hospice team’s reported response. A shrug can feel dismissive to families already living with uncertainty. How do we teach teams to communicate about improvement—honoring hope while preparing families with clarity, compassion, and trust?

An Anderson Township nursing home patient died of natural causes — until the coroner called it homicide ABC WCPO-9, Cincinnati / Anderson Township, OH; by Dan Monk; 1/21/26 An Anderson Township nursing home is under scrutiny after a patient’s death was changed from natural causes to homicide by the Hamilton County Coroner. Robert Meyer was a patient at Forest Hills Healthcare Center, ... He died on Sept. 6, 2025, soon after being transferred to a hospice facility in Blue Ash. No autopsy was conducted because the original death certificate said Meyer died of natural causes. However, as his funeral approached, his daughter raised concerns about his care at Forest Hills. Tammy Maham sent the coroner pictures of neck bruises that Meyer incurred in the days before his death. That led to Meyer’s disinterment, a Sept. 22 autopsy and a revised death certificate that lists “physical elder abuse” as the immediate cause of death by homicide.

Patients' perceptions of autonomy in palliative care: Two patient interview exemplars Palliative Care and Social Practice; by Kristen Tulloch, Julia Acordi Steffen, John P Rosenberg; 1/19/26 Results: Four themes were identified: (a) my involvement in healthcare decisions, (b) change to my autonomy during illness progression, (c) self-assessing my abilities to exercise autonomy and (d) my coping mechanisms for loss of autonomy. Palliative care patients perceived and managed their autonomy amidst their illnesses, revealing a sense of loss of autonomy extending beyond healthcare into many daily activities. Participants wished to exercise autonomy in nuanced ways, varying in intensity across many aspects of their lives, underscoring the importance of recognising and respecting individuals' wishes for autonomy.Editor's Note: The authors’ focus on coping with loss of autonomy is essential. As illness progresses, autonomy can erode not only in medical decisions but across daily life, identity, and meaning—losses that are too often overlooked in clinical care. The frequently misapplied “Five Stages of Grief” can further blur this reality, reducing complex, personal experiences to linear expectations not supported by contemporary grief research. Understanding how patients adapt to loss of autonomy is foundational to truly person-centered palliative care.