Literature Review

All posts tagged with “Research News.”



A process evaluation of a palliative care social work intervention for cancer patients in skilled nursing facilities

04/13/24 at 03:00 AM

A process evaluation of a palliative care social work intervention for cancer patients in skilled nursing facilitiesJournal of Palliative Medicine, by Sarguni Singh, MD; Ashley Dafoe, MA; Dana Lahoff, LCSW; Laurel Tropeano, LCSW; Bree Owens, LCSW; Erin Nielsen, LCSW; John Cagle, MSW, PhD; Hillary D. Lum, MD, PhD; Brooke Dorsey Holliman, PhD; Stacy Fischer, MD; 4/24Assessing and Listening to Individual Goals and Needs (ALIGN) is a palliative care social work intervention that aims to improve delivery of goal-concordant care for hospitalized older adults with cancer discharged to skilled nursing facilities. ... ALIGN offers support in prognostic understanding, communication, and decision making during a pivotal time when patient and caregivers' goals have not been met and they are reassessing priorities.

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The challenges of advance care planning for acute care registered nurses

04/13/24 at 03:00 AM

The challenges of advance care planning for acute care registered nursesCanadian Journal of Nursing Research, by Lori L Rietze, Kelli I Stajduhar, Mary Ellen Purkis, Denise Cloutier; 4/24Nurses were challenged to meet multiple competing demands, leaving them to scramble to manage complex and critically ill acute care patients while also fulfilling organizational tasks aligned with funding metrics, accreditation, and strategic planning priorities. Such factors limited nurses' capacity to engage their patients in ACP. ... Acute care settings that align patient values and medical treatment need to foster ACP practices by revising organizational policies and processes to support this outcome, analyzing the tasks of healthcare providers to determine who might best address it, and budgeting how to support it with additional resources.

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Addressing challenges with sedation in end-of-life care

04/13/24 at 03:00 AM

Addressing challenges with sedation in end-of-life careJournal of Pain and Symptom Management, by Columba Thomas, MD; Yesne Alici, MD; William Breitbart, MD; Eduardo Bruera, MD; Liz Blackler, MBE, LCSW-R; Daniel P. Sulmasy, MD, PhD; 4/24Unfortunately, little is known about actual sedation practices at the end of life in the United States. This may be due in part to a lack of conceptual clarity about sedation in end-of-life care. We argue that, until more is known about what sedation practices occur at the end of life, and how practices can be improved by research and more specific guidelines, “palliative sedation” will remain more misunderstood and controversial than it might otherwise be. 

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Changing the landscape of the neighborhood : The expanding role of the Pediatric Palliative Advanced Practice Registered Nurse

04/13/24 at 03:00 AM

Changing the landscape of the neighborhood : The expanding role of the Pediatric Palliative Advanced Practice Registered NurseJournal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing, by Nicole Sartor, Alice K Bass, Kayla Overstreet; 4/24There is a dearth of information on the role of the pediatric palliative advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) reported in the literature, and yet, the role is expanding. Advances in technology and health care are helping children with medical complexity live longer, and the demand for pediatric palliative care is growing. ... The aim of this article was to describe the expanding role of the pediatric palliative APRN...

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Exploring parent experiences with early palliative care practices in the NICU

04/13/24 at 03:00 AM

Exploring parent experiences with early palliative care practices in the NICUAdvances in Neonatal Care, by Megan Quinn, Sheila Gephart, Janice Crist; 4/24Parents' descriptions of decision-making were contextualized in gathering information to make a decision, the emotional impact of the decision, and influences on their decision-making. In experiences with care planning, parents described learning to advocate, having a spectator versus participant role, and experiencing care planning as communication. Key themes expressed regarding parental coping were exposure to trauma, survival mode, and a changing support network.

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Implementing a Palliative Care Junior Faculty Visiting Professor program: Pearls and pitfalls

04/13/24 at 03:00 AM

Implementing a Palliative Care Junior Faculty Visiting Professor program: Pearls and pitfallsAmerican Journal of Hospice & Palliative Medicine, by Jennifer B Seaman, Teresa H Thomas, Risa L Wong, David I Lazris, Maria Belin, Yael Schenker; 4/24Palliative Care (PC) is a small, relatively young interprofessional sub-specialty; hence mentorship for early-career research faculty is widely dispersed across schools and universities. We developed the Junior Visiting Professor Program (JVPP) to provide junior faculty in PC with opportunities to meet multidisciplinary PC researchers from other institutions and to advance their research through networking and presenting their work. We describe how we designed and implemented the program, and we report on the first cohort of participants.

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We are not okay: Moral injury and a world on fire

04/13/24 at 02:05 AM

We are not okay: Moral injury and a world on fireAmerican Journal of Bioethics, by Keisha S. Ray; 4/24Moral injury gives name to a feeling that I have been having lately as I’m asked to show up to work and my life as if there aren’t people who didn’t wake up today because of violence, disease, and greed. I’ve celebrated holidays and my own professional accomplishments, but I can’t escape that lump in my throat, that nagging feeling that this is all meaningless given the state of the world. After all, my principles won’t feed the starving, shelter the bombed, free the captive, or care for the sick. I don’t have the answer. I do not know what we are supposed to do about our perpetual moral injury. I do find some comfort in the origins of moral injury—calling out a broken system rather than broken individuals (Talbot and Dean Citation 2018). I am not broken; I am just a bioethicist and a human forced to work and live within a broken world.

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Hospices and emergency preparedness planning: A scoping review of the literature

04/13/24 at 02:00 AM

Hospices and emergency preparedness planning: A scoping review of the literatureJournal of Palliative Care, by Janna E Baker Rogers; 4/24Palliative and end-of-life care, as provided by hospices, are important elements of a healthcare response to disasters. A scoping review of the literature was conducted to examine and synthesize what is currently known about emergency preparedness planning by hospices.

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The HAP Foundation conducts research study on Black Americans’ experience with serious illness care in Chicago

04/12/24 at 03:00 AM

The HAP Foundation conducts research study on Black Americans’ experience with serious illness care in ChicagoThe HAP Foundation, by Rachel French; 4/9/24 The HAP Foundation and NORC at the University of Chicago have completed a joint research project to understand the knowledge, attitudes, and experiences of Black Americans around serious illness care in Chicago. Through a community-based participatory research design, narratives from Black individuals living in Chicago were captured by focus groups and in-depth interviews. “Community-Based Study: Prioritizing Dignity and Respect in End-of-Life Care for Black Chicagoans” is being distributed widely to health care providers and the community to encourage conversations and create change in behavioral patterns during end-of-life care.Editor's Note: Click here for this downloadable, 17 page booklet.

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Social media for palliative and end-of-life care research: a systematic review

04/11/24 at 03:00 AM

Social media for palliative and end-of-life care research: a systematic review BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care; by Yijun Wang, Jonathan Koffman, Wei Gao, Yuxin Zhou, Emeka Chukwusa, and Vasa Curcin; 4/9/24, online ahead of printBackground: Social media with real-time content and a wide-reaching user network opens up more possibilities for palliative and end-of-life care (PEoLC) researchers who have begun to embrace it as a complementary research tool. This review aims to identify the uses of social media in PEoLC studies and to examine the ethical considerations and data collection approaches raised by this research approach. 

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How a CU biostatistician is helping improve palliative care research

04/08/24 at 03:00 AM

How a CU biostatistician is helping improve palliative care research University of Colorado - Anschutz Medical Campus, by Tayler Shaw; 4/3/24 

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Too soon or too late: Rethinking the significance of six months when dementia is a primary diagnosis

04/06/24 at 03:00 AM

Too soon or too late: Rethinking the significance of six months when dementia is a primary diagnosisThe Hastings Center Report, by Cindy L. Cain, Timothy E. Quill; 1/24In the case of people living with advanced dementia, six months is both too early in the trajectory to facilitate conversations and too late in the trajectory to ensure decision-making capacity. This essay encourages scholars and policy-makers to consider how cultural narratives may limit what they think is possible in care for people living with dementia.

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Wide variation in differences in resource use seen across conditions between Medicare Advantage, Traditional Medicare

04/06/24 at 03:00 AM

Wide variation in differences in resource use seen across conditions between Medicare Advantage, Traditional MedicareHealth Affairs, by Jeah Jung, Caroline S. Carlin, Roger Feldman, Ge Song; 9/23Medicare Advantage (MA) is a rapidly growing source of coverage for Medicare beneficiaries. Examining how MA performs compared with traditional Medicare is an important policy issue. We analyzed national MA encounter data and found that the adjusted differences in resource use between MA and traditional Medicare varied widely across medical conditions in 2019.

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“Trying to find North”: Fathers voice the nature of their bereavement

04/06/24 at 03:00 AM

“Trying to find North”: Fathers voice the nature of their bereavementOMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying, by Christine Denhup; 3/24Fathers' lived experience of bereavement is not well understood. ... Findings amplify fathers' voice so nurses gain a deeper understanding of their experience.

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Where you begin is not necessarily where you end: the mental and physical health trajectories of cancer caregivers over time

04/06/24 at 03:00 AM

Where you begin is not necessarily where you end: the mental and physical health trajectories of cancer caregivers over timeSupportive Care in Cancer, by Maureen Wilson Genderson, Maria D. Thomson, Laura A. Siminoff; 10/23Cancer caregiving, a critical component in the cancer-care model, has deleterious effects on the caregiver’s physical and mental health. The degree to which these negative effects are uniformly experienced by caregivers is unclear; effects may be exacerbated at the end of life when caregiving is intensified. Not all caregivers have the support of an additional involved support person (secondary caregiver). The impact of the secondary caregiver’s absence on the primary caregiver’s well-being is understudied.

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HPNA and HPNF President's message : My path to leadership

04/06/24 at 03:00 AM

HPNA and HPNF President's message : My path to leadershipJournal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing, by Lynn Reinke; 4/24Reflecting on my professional life, I recall several seminal experiences that made me believe I possessed basic leadership skills and that encouraged me to develop them. I advanced my skills in 3 ways:

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Neuropsychiatric effects associated with opioid-based management for palliative care patients

04/06/24 at 03:00 AM

Neuropsychiatric effects associated with opioid-based management for palliative care patientsCurrent Pain and Headache Reports, by Alan D Kaye, Kylie Dufrene, Jada Cooley, Madeline Walker, Shivam Shah, Alex Hollander, Sahar Shekoohi, Christopher L Robinson; 4/24The abundance of opioids administered in the palliative care setting that was once considered a standard of care is at present necessitating that providers evaluate patients for unintentional and deleterious symptomology related to aberrant opioid use and addiction. ... By having an increased understanding and awareness of potential opioid neuropsychiatric effects, patient quality of life can be improved, healthcare system costs can be decreased, and patient outcomes can be met and exceeded.

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When dying does not go well: a qualitative study

04/06/24 at 03:00 AM

When dying does not go well: a qualitative studyBMC Palliative Care, by Christof Breitsameter; 3/24Several studies deal with the question of what constitutes a "satisfactory death". A smaller number of studies deal with unsatisfactory dying processes. And only a few shed light on unsatisfactory deaths that take place in hospices and palliative care units, which see themselves as places conducive to a "good" death. What also remains largely undiscussed are the ethical aspects that accompany the observation of an unsatisfactory course of death.

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Do end-of-life outcomes differ by assisted living memory-care designation?

04/06/24 at 03:00 AM

Do end-of-life outcomes differ by assisted living memory-care designation?Journal of the American Geriatric Society, by Xiao Joyce Wang, Portia Y Cornell, Emmanuelle Belanger, Kali S Thomas; 4/24Residential care/assisted living (RC/AL) is an increasingly common place of end-of-life care for persons with Alzheimer's disease and related dementia (ADRD), who have unique care needs as their health declines. Approximately 22% of RC/ALs provide specialized memory care (memory-care RC/AL). Understanding how end-of-life outcomes differ by memory care among residents with ADRD could facilitate aging/dying in place for this population. The objective of this paper is to examine if end-of-life outcomes (i.e., mortality, hospice use, and number of days receiving hospice in the last month of life) differ between residents with ADRD who moved to memory-care RC/AL, compared with residents with ADRD who moved to RC/AL without memory care (general RC/AL).

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Association of frailty and cardiopulmonary resuscitation outcomes in older U.S. Veterans

04/06/24 at 03:00 AM

Association of frailty and cardiopulmonary resuscitation outcomes in older U.S. VeteransAmerican Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, by Dominique M Tosi, MD; Marlena C Fernandez, MD; Shivaan Oomrigar, MD; Lorena P Burton, MD; Iriana S Hammel, MD; Andrew Quartin, MD; Jorge G Ruiz, MD; 4/24CPR outcomes were not different depending on frailty status in our Veteran population. With these results, we cannot use frailty - as measured by the VA-FI - as a prognosticator of CPR outcomes in Veterans.

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Bereaved Parent Support Study: Seeking Participants

04/04/24 at 03:00 AM

Bereaved Parent Support Study: Seeking Participants Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center/University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Cancer, St. Jude Children's Hospital, and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; 4/2/24This program is offered as a research study examining three types of support for bereaved parents who have lost a child to cancer. The study is jointly sponsored by Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center/University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Cancer, St. Jude Children's Hospital, and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; however, families need not have received care from one of these institutions. ...The counseling will be provided through videoconferencing and all activities for this study can be completed in [the participant's] home. ... There will be no charge for any support offered through the study. [Click on the title's link for more information.] 

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Funding opportunity now available! Up to 5 grantee awards totaling $1,275,000 for health equity research

04/02/24 at 03:00 AM

Funding opportunity now available! Up to 5 grantee awards totaling $1,275,000 for health equity researchCMS Office of Minority Health; 4/1/24The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of Minority Health’s (CMS OMH) Minority Research Grant Program (MRGP) is proud to release a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for researchers at minority-serving institutions (MSIs). With this grant, you will partner with CMS OMH to grow your research credentials, increase public knowledge of health equity, and join the ranks of other published MRGP awardees.

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Factors associated with hospital admission in the last month: A retrospective single center analysis

03/30/24 at 03:00 AM

Factors associated with hospital admission in the last month: A retrospective single center analysisJournal of Pain and Symptom Management, by Jessica E. Ma MD; Maren K. Olsen PhD; Cara L. McDermott PharmD, PhD; C. Barrett Bowling MD; S. Nicole Hastings MD; Tyler White; David Casarett MD, MA; 3/242202 (25.9%) patients had a hospital admission in the last month [of life]. Among the 1282 (15.1%) who died in a health system facility, most (86.0%) were admitted to the hospital in the last month. Among patients with a hospital admission and discharged in the last month, 60.9% were discharged on hospice. Compared to those without these diseases, metastatic cancer, liver disease, or heart failure had the highest odds of admission in the last month. ... As patients with heart or liver disease or metastatic cancer had the highest odds of admission in the last month, collaborative interventions between primary, palliative, and specialty care may improve quality of care at the end of life.

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Top ten tips palliative clinicians should know about rural palliative care in the United States

03/30/24 at 03:00 AM

Top ten tips palliative clinicians should know about rural palliative care in the United StatesJournal of Palliative Medicine, by Jack Kimball, Chamika Hawkins-Taylor, Anne Anderson, Debra Gay Anderson, Mary Lou Clark Fornehed, Patricia Justis, Nasreen Lalani, Sarah Mollman, Brandi Pravecek, Julie Rice, Janelle Shearer, Dillon Stein, Salom M. Teshale, and Marie A. Bakitas; 3/24Palliative care improves outcomes, yet rural residents often lack adequate and equitable access. This study provides practical tips to address palliative care (PC)-related challenges in rural communities. Strategies include engaging trusted community partners, addressing cultural factors, improving pediatric care, utilizing telehealth, networking with rural teams including caregivers, and expanding roles for nurses and advanced practice providers.

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Hospice providers serving assisted living residents: Association of higher volume with lower quality

03/30/24 at 03:00 AM

Hospice providers serving assisted living residents: Association of higher volume with lower qualityJournal of the American Geriatric Society, by Wenhan Guo, Helena Temkin-Greener, Brian E McGarry; 3/24Hospice providers serving higher volumes of AL patient days had lower quality scores.

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