Literature Review

Translating the value of palliative transfusions for patients with blood cancers into high-quality end-of-life careJAMA Network Open; by Pamela Egan, Dana Guyer; 11/25Studies have described how patients with blood cancers enroll in hospice care at lower rates than patients with solid tumor cancers, receive more futile chemotherapy, are more likely to seek emergency care at the EOL [end of life] , are more likely to be treated in intensive care units, and are more likely to die in hospital settings than their counterparts with solid tumors. The Medicare hospice benefit is structured in such a way that providing transfusions is cost prohibitive for hospice agencies. It is time to heed the call from the American Society of Hematology and palliative care and hospice agencies nationwide to revise the Medicare hospice benefit such that patients with blood cancers can receive hospice care as soon as their cancer-directed treatments are no longer valuable without sacrificing the quality-of-life–sustaining transfusions. This will be an important step toward ensuring high-quality EOL care for patients with hematologic malignant neoplasms.

Teaching primary palliative nursing care: A model of competency-based educationJournal of Professional Nursing; by Hannah Murphy Buc, Melissa McClean, Janet Armstead Wulf; Jan-Feb 2026Holistic care models such as primary palliative care offer individuals a coordinated, interprofessional and compassionate approach in any healthcare setting regardless of condition. Currently, palliative and end-of-life nursing care content is either threaded throughout nursing curricula or not included at all. This article documents the development of a required primary palliative care course in a baccalaureate nursing program and shares recommendations on competency-based teaching and evaluation methods to encourage implementation in other academic nursing settings. Course evaluations indicate that the class was well received and valuable to students' learning experience.

The hidden influence of social narratives on end-of-life decisionsJournal of Applied Social Science; by Stephanie Smith; 11/25Widespread exposure to idealized and distorted portrayals of death across news media, entertainment, and advertising has reshaped societal understandings of mortality. Often depicted as rare, swift, conquerable, or emotionally distant, death is stripped of realistic representation, obscuring the complexities of the dying process. Drawing on social cognitive theory, this interdisciplinary conceptual analysis examines how such portrayals function as behavioral models—shaping individual attitudes toward mortality, influencing end-of-life care decisions, and informing public health policy and resource allocation. Addressing these distortions requires a cross‑disciplinary shift in cultural attitudes, bringing together storytellers, clinicians, educators, and policymakers to integrate authentic portrayals of dying into public discourse, reframe aging as a valued stage of life, and expand access to death education. Such efforts can dismantle harmful myths, support informed decision-making, and guide healthcare systems toward practices that balance medical possibility with human dignity. In doing so, society may cultivate a more honest, empathetic, and developmentally appropriate relationship with mortality.

When the nurse becomes the daughter: Lessons from my father's final daysAmerican Journal of Hospice & Palliative Care; by Keshia R Brown; 11/25Military service demands sacrifice, but no professional challenge prepared me for the deeply personal experience of caring for my father at the end of his life. This experience transformed my understanding of nursing by revealing the profound impact of presence, love, and dignity-centered care. Caring for my father illuminated the intersection of professional skill and personal devotion, demonstrating that the heart of nursing extends beyond clinical interventions. It resides in honoring the whole person and offering unwavering compassion in their most vulnerable moments. This narrative reflects on the emotional, ethical, and spiritual lessons learned as I walked my father through his final chapter-an unexpected gift and the greatest honor of my nursing career.

Staying connected: A longitudinal, multisite, interprofessional rural fellowship collaborationJournal of Pain & Symptom Management; by Rhianon R. Liu, Rebecca N. Hutchinson, Stephen H. Berns, Nastasha Stitham, Jackie Fournier, John W. Wax MD , Lisa A. Stephens, Jonathan S. Jolin, Maxwell T. Vergo; 11/25Four interprofessional Hospice and Palliative Medicine (HPM) fellowship programs in rural northern New England states created an in-person educational retreat series. The goal of the series was to maximize shared educational resources and foster community amongst faculty and fellows, in an upstream attempt to improve recruitment/retention of clinicians in three rural states with inadequate access to specialty palliative care. At least 88% of fellows rated the retreats effective in strengthening their clinical, communication, teamwork, and leadership skills. Over four-fifths of faculty and fellows felt the retreats increased their sense of belonging and decreased professional isolation. The retreats were a top factor influencing fellowship choice for 29% of fellows, as well as a major incentive to remain practicing in the region for 32% of faculty.

Self-efficacy change among diverse family caregivers in dementia care The Journals of Gerontology Series B; by Deborah M Oyeyemi, Erich J Greene, Yunshan Xu, David R Lee, Rafael Samper-Ternent, Maya L Lichtenstein, Alan Stevens, Jeff D Williamson, Arun S Karlamangla, Debra Saliba, David B Reuben; 11/25Objectives: to determine whether changes in caregiver self-efficacy (beliefs about one’s ability to manage dementia-related problems and access help) differed by caregiver race and ethnicity across all participants enrolled in a large pragmatic trial of comprehensive dementia care. Black, Latino, and White dementia caregivers reported similar improvements in caregiver self-efficacy after participating in a comprehensive dementia care trial. Caregiver self-efficacy change did not differ significantly by caregiver race and ethnicity. Personalized aspects of comprehensive dementia care appear to address the needs of diverse caregiver populations.

Palliative care specialist use among Medicare decedents who had poor-prognosis cancersJAMA Network; by Isaac S. Chua, Haiden A. Huskamp, Ateev Mehrotra, Andrew D. Wilcock; 7/25Has specialty palliative care (PC) use among Medicare decedents who had cancers with poor prognoses changed in the context of greater telehealth use and more advanced practice clinicians in the field? In this cohort study..., the proportion with specialty PC use increased 24% from 2018 to 2023 [from 30% to 37%], largely driven by outpatient encounters and care by advanced practice clinicians. Decedents who were older, had lower incomes, and were living in nonmetropolitan areas remained less likely to receive any PC... These findings suggest that different strategies are needed to increase PC use among some disadvantaged subpopulations.Publisher's Note: Similar to Hua's article (Validation of a claims-based algorithm for specialist palliative care delivery in metastatic cancer), palliative care specialists were defined as those with NPI provider specialty code 17 or those who  included an ICD-10 Z51.5 code on at least 80% of their evaluation and management encounters.