Literature Review

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. 

Relearning the world through grief-informed case formulation: A critique of prolonged grief disorder Journal of Humanistic Psychology; by Eleonora Ramsby Herrera, PhD; 1/31/26 Drawing on existential and humanistic frameworks, this review article critically examines the diagnosis of prolonged grief disorder and questions the usefulness of reducing grieving to a fixed set of symptoms and timelines. ... Rather than viewing grief as a disorder to be treated, the article advocates for understanding it as a natural and potentially transformative human response and argues for integrating grief into the bereaved person’s life story as a way to relearn the world.

Palliative care and quality outcomes in patients with brain metastases and poor prognosis: A multi-institutional analysis JCO Oncology Practice - An American Society of Clinical Oncology Journal; by Rohit Singh, MD, Camilo E. Fadul, MD, Emily Kopp, MS, Guneet Sarai, MD, Roger Anderson, PhD, Ryan F. Amidon, MD, Samantha Schuetz, MD, Amy Chang, MD, Ausia N. Iqbal, MD, Joseph A. Bovi, MD, and Alissa A. Thomas, MD; 2/23/26 Purpose: To analyze the patterns of palliative care (PC) consultation for patients with brain metastases (BMETs) and its association with treatment, overall survival (OS), and quality metrics (eg, advance directives [ADs], hospice enrollment). Conclusion: The involvement of PC services correlated with higher completion rates of ADs and increased hospice utilization, without compromising survival or significantly altering other treatment options. There is an unmet need for PC among patients with BMETs with poor prognosis.

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.

A patient’s visit home Parkview Health; by Tim O'Sullivan, Parkview Hospice; 2/17/26 The Canal Stock Farm is more than a historical landmark along Old 24 in New Haven, Indiana. It is the home to now six generations of Ronald Hockemeyer’s family. Over the past year, members of the Parkview Hospice team had the privilege of getting to know Ron and the legacy of his familial home. ... Ron expressed his desire to have just one more day on the farm with his Parkview Hospice social worker, Emily Zimmerman. Emily was aware of a new program that makes the wishes of Parkview Hospice patients come true. She filled out the application and identified all the resources needed to secure a safe visit. Through the generosity of donors to the Parkview Foundation Hospice Fund, Ron’s day on the farm was made a reality.

Psychosocial oncology: The Omega Project Taylor & Francis | Death Studies; by Matthew Loscalzo and Linda A. Klein; 2/14/26This article reports on an interview with J. William Worden that focuses initially on the Omega Project (1968–1986) that studied end-of-life care. Worden explains the four phases of the project with specific populations, goals, and key concepts that emerged. The discussion then shifts to the development of psychosocial oncology and palliative care. Finally, Worden offers some thoughts on the development of the hospice movement in the United States, the role of religion in coping with mortality, coping with personal loss, and his advice to new medical or graduate students just starting out.

The impact of religious and spiritual care on parents or caregivers in pediatrics: A scoping reviewJournal of Health Care Chaplaincy; by Salvador Leavitt-Alcántara, Samantha Summers; 1/26This scoping review examines the literature on the impact of spiritual and religious care on parents or guardians of children admitted to high acuity pediatric hospital units. Results reveal themes of positive impact of spiritual or religious care on several components of parents/caregivers' in the areas of emotional coping, grief and bereavement, positive parental perception of the impact of chaplains in high acuity settings, and outside spiritual/religious guidance and support during the medical decision-making process.

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.

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. ...

A qualitative study of chaplains spiritual care for persons with dementia in long-term careJournal of Applied Gerontology; by Meganne K. Masko, Sarah McEvoy, Jung Kwak, Kathryn Lyndes, Alexia M. Torke, Shelley Varner Perez, George Fitchett; 12/25This study explored how chaplains provide spiritual care for residents with dementia in long-term care, which is not well understood. We conducted six separate semi-structured focus groups with a total of 16 chaplains who provide care for people with dementia in long-term care facilities across the U.S. Two main themes emerged: the broad and multifaceted role of chaplains in long-term care, including responsibilities to residents, staff, and family, and dementia-specific spiritual care adaptations and delivery practices, including learning through experience, using multisensory tools, relying on presence, music, and emotional resonance. Chaplains’ adaptive, person-centered spiritual care for residents with dementia highlights the need for dementia-informed chaplaincy training and greater integration of chaplaincy into interdisciplinary care planning in long-term care settings.

Fly fishing support group provides new angle on grief processing: The grieving can find peace in the rhythm of fishingTimes Courier, Ellijay, GA; by Jackson Elliott; 1/28/26 Few people understand grief like a hospice chaplain. “I’ve experienced about 5,000 deaths,” former hospice chaplain Rick Gillert said. “And I’ve helped those families and patients through the grieving process." “‘I had this idea in the back of my head of combining professional grief care with fly fishing,” he said. During his time as a hospice chaplain, he would often seek peace from the difficulty of the work by going fishing the next day. “I can almost imagine my anxieties, my worries as leaves falling on the water and washing away,” Gillert said. In his program, clients join a group and go through a 10-week course on fly fishing, processing grief and coping skills.

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?