Literature Review

“Can We Talk?” A community-based training to improve serious illness communication Home Healthcare Now; by Ashley Kaminski Petkis, DNP, APRN, AGACNP-BC and Eric Hackenson, DPT; Jan/Feb 2026 Serious illness conversations (SICs) are often delayed or avoided in community-based healthcare due to clinician discomfort and lack of training. Given that many patients wish to die at home, yet often do not, there is a need for structured communication training in home care and hospice settings to ensure the care we provide aligns with patient and family preferences. ...  By embedding SIC training within a community-based organization, this work demonstrated how modest interventions can catalyze a change in practice, reinforcing the idea that SICs are a standard of quality care rather than an optional enhancement.

'It’s comfort, dignity and time': Agrace receives CuddleCot donation from JackPack GazetteXtra, Janesville, WI; by Kylie Balk-Yaatenen; 1/4/26 For nearly a decade, a Janesville family has worked to ensure that parents facing the loss of a baby are given something they themselves never had: Time. Through The Jack Pack, a local nonprofit founded after the stillbirth of their son, Jack, in 2015, Jackie Harwick and her husband, Garrick, have donated 14 CuddleCots to hospitals and hospice providers across southern Wisconsin. Their most recent donation went to ... Agrace’s pediatric hospice program. A CuddleCot is a temperature-controlled bassinet insert that slows natural changes after death, allowing families to spend extended time with their baby; ... That time can allow parents to hold their child, invite loved ones to meet the baby, create memories and begin grieving in a more supported way.

Hands Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA); by R. Jordan Williams, MD, MPH; 8/13/25Lend me your hand Callused or calaminedWrinkled or plump,Nails bittenNails extendedSplintered and pittedNails neatly or never cropped.Lend me your hand Strong or weak Cold or warmingSwollen and swanned; Gnarled in knots ...Editor's Note: Continue reading this powerful poem. Additionally, JAMA published this description of the poem, "Poetry and the Medicine of Touch" by Rafael Campo, MD, MA: "In this deeply felt poem, the hand becomes a potent metaphor for our shared humanity ... Aspiring clinicians are still taught to assess, to palpate, to diagnose through touch. Yet, as “Hands” reminds us, patients’ hands hold far more than clinical signs—they reflect stories, histories, fears, and hopes. ..."

The results are in: Palliative care professionals share how they’re doing in 2025Center to Advance Palliative Care - CAPC; by Rachael Heitner, MPH; 12/16/25 CAPC’s second annual Palliative Pulse survey offers insight on how palliative care professionals across the country are feeling this year and what they’re focused on—see how they responded. ... In this blog, we share four key findings from participants’ self-reports and take a closer look at the data behind each one. ...

'Music makes everything better': Austin doctor spins vinyl to give patients a sense of home KUT 90.5, Austin, TX; by Olivia Aldridge; 12/16/25 Lying in her bed at Dell Seton Medical Center, 64-year-old Pamela Mansfield sways her feet to the rhythm of George Jones’ “She Thinks I Still Care.” Mansfield is still recovering much of her mobility after a recent neck surgery, but she finds a way to move to the music floating from a record player that was just wheeled into her room. “Seems to be the worst part is the stiffness in my ankles and the no feeling in the hands,” she says. “But music makes everything better.” Mansfield was being visited by the ATX-VINyL program, a project dreamed up by Dr. Tyler Jorgensen to bring music to the bedside of patients dealing with difficult diagnoses and treatments. He collaborates with a team of volunteers who wheel the player on a cart to patients’ rooms, along with a selection of records in their favorite genres.

My patient was gone. I had to help his family see it: The art of medicine means sitting with families’ grief and hope Stat10 - First Opinion; by Raya Elfadel Kheirbek; 12/15/25 Bullets tore through Michael Thompson’s car at a stop sign, ending the life of a 35-year-old father in an instant. Just minutes earlier, he had dropped his 8-year-old daughter, Emma, at dance class, her pink tutu bouncing as she waved goodbye. Now, in the ICU, his young body lay tethered to machines — ... a ventilator’s hiss forcing his chest to rise. ... His family’s grief filled the room, raw and heavy, as I prepared to document our meeting. On the screen, a pop-up appeared: “Patient is deceased; do you want to continue?” Its cold bluntness paled against their pain. Michael looked alive. His chest rose and fell with the ventilator. ... Medicine isn’t just tests or machines. It is presence — sitting with families in their grief, faith, and love. Our tools should support that presence, not interrupt it with cold prompts. ... Most U.S. hospitals lack clear guidelines for these situations, leaving families and clinicians alike in limbo. They also worried about organ donation — a decision fewer than 1% of families consent to after brain death, often because the body still looks alive.Editor's Note: We thank the palliative care physicians, nurses, social workers, and chaplains who provide sensitive presence with families in the unbearable spaces between hope and loss, especially when life support decisions arise. In this season, may we pause to honor those who carry this sacred work—and remember the families who have had to accept harsh truths while machines still “breathe.”

Hospice chaplain gets prison for sexual assault at facility in Sacramento County The Sacramento Bee, Sacramento, CA; by Rosalio Ahumada; 12/8/25A judge on Thursday [12/4] sentenced a man who worked as a hospice chaplain last year when he sexually assaulted a woman living in an elder care facility in Sacramento County.  ... [The chaplain] worked for a company that was contracted by care facilities, and the elderly woman was sexually assaulted within a week before the arrest. ... The District Attorney's Office did not include the name of the company or the care facility in the news release.

I went to a conference about death. Everyone was laughing. USA Today, Los Angeles, CA; by David Oliver; 12/2/25 Welcome to the EndWell Summit, a gathering of more than 700 caregivers, clinicians and advocates who've grieved, are grieving or are working with those at the end of their lives. Speakers included a pediatric palliative care physician, a global health economist and a prison hospice advocate, not to mention celebrities like Emma Heming Willis (Bruce Willis' wife) and Katherine LaNasa ("The Pitt"). It's an inviting space – ... --where casual conversations and formal talks about death are tear-jerking one second and laugh-out-loud funny the next. ... The conference's theme was "radical bravery." Don't get it twisted, though. Radical bravery is not about being fearless, but staying present even when dark clouds form above you.

Bridging the gap: A scoping review of clinical decision support systems in end-of-life care for older adults Journal of Palliative Medicine; by Susanny J Beltran, Lainey Dorris, Marie Hamel, Shanelle Harvey, Mustafa Ozkaynak, Kenan Sualp; 11/17/25 online ahead of print Background: ...  This scoping review maps the current landscape of clinical decision support (CDS) systems in EOL care, identifies key system types, and examines their effectiveness in guiding clinical decisions. ... Results: A total of 31 studies were included, categorizing CDS systems into prognostic tools, referral tools, and care informing tools. ...

Shepherd’s Cove Hospice: Children’s Activity Garden Sand Mountain Reporter, Albertville, AL; by Mary Bailey; 11/22/25 Shepherd’s Cove Hospice in Albertville lives by the words of community, compassion and connection. On Tuesday morning they opened the doors of the community room for a free breakfast and then held a ribbon cutting for their new “Children’s Activity Garden” located at their facility. With one in nine children in Alabama experiencing a loss of a parent or sibling by age 18, Shepherd’s Cove Hospice saw a need and wanted to help. The Children’s Activity Garden is space where children and teenagers can come to deal with their emotions but also have the freedom and space to still be a child and play. 

Phoebe Sumter helps hospice patient say final goodbyes to "Moonshine" and "Cowboy," her beloved animals Phoebe Putney Health System, Americus, GA; Press Release; 11/14/25 ... Kate’s only wish was to see her horse, Moonshine. ... Kate’s close friend Sunday Laramore said, “She was an amazing horse trainer.  She had been doing that since very early adulthood.  She got Moonshine when he was 18 months-old; ... they had an amazing bond.” Kate’s condition was too unstable for her to return home to visit Moonshine, so the Phoebe Sumter care team began formulating a plan to bring Moonshine – and Kate’s dog, Cowboy – to the hospital to see her.  Less than an hour after the team learned of Kate’s desire to see her animals, the pets were loaded up and on the way to the hospital.

“I was horrified”: 34 surgeons and doctors recall their worst mistakes BoredPanda; by Justin Sandberg; 11/19/25 Someone asked “Medical professionals, what mistake have you made in your medical career that, because of the outcome, you've never forgotten?” and people shared their stories from fortunately comical to downright grim. ...#4.  I work in palliative care, ... I knew he wanted to be a DNR (do not resuscitate). I wrote it on my note. But I didn't re-fill out the hospital paperwork. The next day, I got to work to discover he'd been coded and was on a ventilator in the ICU. Instead of passing peacefully, his wife had to make the decision to turn off life support.  ...Editor's Note: Entry #20 comes from a hospice nurse describing a patient with severe bone pain started on morphine—then an out-of-town daughter arrived, shocked to see “Daddy on morphine.” What unfolded was realistic and tragic. This story highlights two timely essentials:

Q&A: Prognostic preferences ‘a swinging pendulum’ for older adults with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD)Healio; by Lucas Laboy and Annie Liu, DO, MPH, MS; 11/17/25 Older adults with end-stage kidney disease and their care partners expressed dynamic prognostic preferences over time, according to study findings published in Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. Serious conversations with patients with ESKD can be difficult for nephrologists, according to Annie Liu, DO, MPH, MS, associate physician at Mass General Brigham, and colleagues. ... Key themes included: