Literature Review

Hyperactive Delirium during hospice patients’ last week of life in a home care setting 

Themed digest for palliative care professionals: Spiritual support for children ehospice | PACED; February 2026 Spiritual support remains one of the most complex and, at the same time, most essential elements of palliative care. In the February PACED digest, we present articles exploring the integration of spiritual care into nursing practice, families’ experiences in paediatric palliative care, and the role of professionals in discussing end-of-life issues with children and adolescents. This issue includes materials on professional competencies, system-level recommendations, and parents’ lived experiences. Together, they offer insight into how spiritual and value-based questions shape clinical practice and influence the quality of support provided to families. ...

Palliative care physician explains living and dying with ALS Forbes; by Adaira Landry, MD, MEd; 2/26/26 Actor Eric Dane’s recent death from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has drawn national attention. ... Beyond the headlines lies a deeper and more urgent discussion: what life—and death—look like for patients living with ALS. To better understand both the clinical and scientific landscape, I spoke with Dr. Maria “Marissa” Mapa, an internal medicine and palliative care physician who treats patients with ALS, and Dr. Melanie Leitner, chief scientific officer of the ALS Investment Fund, about current and future research directions.

The burden of the eldest daughter MedPage Today's KevinMD.com; podcast by Jessie Mahone, MD; 10/15/25 Were you the one who always held it together? The responsible one? The one who made sure everyone else was OK, sometimes at the cost of your own well-being? For most eldest daughters, this role is inevitable. We don’t choose it. We are handed it, early and often, because we are so “capable.” We accept this role and excel at it. That’s what most eldest daughters do with whatever is handed to us. Recently, my podcast cohost, another female physician, and I realized we had so many shared “eldest daughter” experiences. 

When the prognosis shifts: How communication strategies can help patients and families plan for what’s next Cancer Nursing Today; by Monique Nugent, MD, MPH, Gina Mohr, MD, Sarah Anderson, DNP, AGACNP-BC, OCN, WCC, Sarah May, MD; 2/20/26 Monique Nugent, MD, MPH, author of Prescription for Admission and hospitalist at South Shore Health, joined Cancer Nursing Today and Urban Health Today to moderate a collaborative roundtable focused on leading challenging conversations in healthcare settings, including key takeaways and educational insights for oncology nurses. A multidisciplinary panel of experts accompanied Dr. Nugent ... [to discuss] how oncology nurses and other healthcare professionals should approach end-of-life discussions with patients and caregivers and why in-depth planning for these conversations is critical.

“You’re not just there to do a job”: a qualitative examination of Canadian long-term care worker strengths BMH Health Services Research; by Duneesha Goonetilleke, Nick Boettcher, Sofia Celis & Bonnie Lashewicz; 2/25/26, online ahead of print Results: We present three themes identifying interlocking expressions of strength. First, during crisis, workers stretched roles, redistributed tasks, and supported one another to sustain care under extreme constraint. Second, staff upheld person-centred care in their daily actions, working from values of dignity, relationships, and residents’ goals. Third, workers translated experience into learning and advocacy, articulating ideas to improve staffing, role clarity, leadership practices, and visitation approaches. Across these expressions, workers’ tenacity, togetherness, and shared purpose enabled collective action, although these strengths often entailed costs such as fatigue and moral strain. 

Hospital chaplain shares what end-of-life patients regret most Religion Unplugged; by Elizabeth Eisenstadt Evans; 2/24/26 ... In her research focused on the greater Boston area, Brandeis University professor (now President of Bryn Mawr College) Wendy Cadge found that many chaplains — whether they serve in hospitals, prisons or the military — often focus on end-of-life care and “big questions,” ones that might arise more forcefully in a time of crisis. ... When I’m with people near the end of their lives, what I most often witness is not fear of death itself, but grief over unfinished relationships and or unexpressed parts of the self. Many people grieve time they now see as wasted on what felt urgent in the moment but unimportant in hindsight — work that eclipsed connection, worry that crowded out presence, obligations that pulled them away from what actually nourished them. Alongside this is grief for words left unsaid, tenderness withheld, and versions of themselves they didn’t feel permitted to become.

Doing everything FOR the patient, not TO the patient HIStalk - Healthcare IT News & Opinion; by Nassib Charmoun; 2/23/26 “Do as much as possible for the patient and as little as possible to the patient.” That single sentence, written by Bernard Lown, MD in “The Lost Art of Healing,” should serve as a universal guide to thinking about medicine, caregiving, and what it truly means to heal. Dr. Lown was my mentor beginning in my early 20s and remained a close friend until his death in 2021 at age 99, He was decades ahead of his time. He believed that medicine should integrate scientific rigor with moral imagination, and that clinical excellence without compassion is incomplete care. ... Increasingly, the evidence suggests that quality of life, not simply quantity of life, must be the defining outcome.

Cognitive decline is often linked to hearing loss: This may be whyMedicalNewsToday; by James McIntosh; 2/16/26

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.  

Expanding access to compassionate hospice care in Northern Virginia The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington; Press Release; 1/27/26 We are excited and proud to share that JSSA, a longtime Federation partner, is expanding its hospice services to Northern Virginia—an important step in ensuring individuals and families in our region have access to high-quality, community-based end-of-life care when it matters most. ... For more than 40 years, JSSA has been a trusted provider of hospice care in Montgomery County, supporting patients and families with expert clinical care alongside emotional and spiritual support. This expansion builds on JSSA’s more than 45 years of serving Northern Virginia through mental health services, aging-in-place programs, and its Holocaust Survivor Program.

Spreading the principles of palliative care to all corners Health Affairs; by Jessica Nutik Zitter; 2/2/26 My daughter Sasha is a first-year medical student. ... Most recently, she has been envisioning herself as a palliative care physician. She tells me it may be the only specialty that will allow her to practice her values. As a long-time palliative care physician who has acted as an evangelist for the specialty, I surprised myself with a reflexive response. “I’m not sure that’s the best choice for you,” I said. ... Something needs to change—for our patients and for ourselves. ... I propose several strategies ...

“This is what loneliness looks like”: A description of a high-risk population of palliative and oncology patients American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine; by Tamia Ross, MSPH, Ruwanthi Ekanayake, BA, Lucy Rabinowitz Bailey, MPH, Kain Kim, MD, and Emily Pinto Taylor, MD; 1/9/26 Background: Loneliness exacerbates symptom burden and reduces quality of life in serious illness. Social prescribing–linking patients to non-clinical community activities–offers a novel approach to address loneliness in palliative care. Results: Most patients were older, non-Hispanic Black women experiencing financial strain, food insecurity, and transportation barriers. Anxiety exceeded depression severity; mood disorders, loneliness, and social isolation were leading referral reasons.