Literature Review

Finger Lakes Nurse Honor Guard gives late nurses a final tribute Democrat and Chronicle; by Mike Murphy; 9/21/26 As Ruth Benjamin was getting ready to retire after more than 50 years in nursing, two of her colleagues passed away. ... Nursing is a calling and a way of life, Benjamin said by way of explanation, and many like her and her colleague gave everything they had to their profession. ... After some research, Benjamin founded the Finger Lakes Nurse Honor Guard, which celebrates its third anniversary in October. The all-volunteer honor guard ensures that late nurses are recognized, in a similar way that honor guards pay tribute to late military or first responders. ... The service is free.Editor's Note: Though this article is behind a paywall, you can learn more about this inspirational Finger Lakes Nurse Honor Guard from their website.

When to stop coaching and get someone off the bus Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN); by Chris Comeaux; 9/17/26 One of the hardest leadership decisions is determining when coaching has run its course and when it’s time to help someone exit the team. Great leaders want to believe every person can succeed with enough support, enough clarity, enough encouragement, or enough time. Sometimes that’s true. Sometimes it isn’t. ... There are three principles that help leaders navigate this difficult decision with clarity and compassion. ...

Hospice families and Mercy patients navigate overlapping Allina strikes as health system reports 37 doctors crossed picket linesMedical Daily, Minneapolis, MN; by Elena Vega; 9/16/26Allina Health says only about half of the nearly 150 physicians represented by Doctors Council SEIU walked off the job when a four-day strike began Monday, Sept. 14, at Mercy Hospital's Coon Rapids campus and Unity campus in Fridley. Allina spokesperson Blois Olson told the Minnesota Reformer that 37 union doctors crossed the picket line and 40 were not scheduled to work this week. ... As of Wednesday, Sept. 16, MedicalDaily had not found a newer official count or a public response from the union. The physician strike is running alongside a separate seven-day walkout by roughly 60 Allina hospice nurses that began Friday, Sept. 11, and is scheduled to run through Thursday, Sept. 17.

Your culture isn't what you say—it's what you tolerate | part one Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN); by Chris Comeaux; 9/926 Your organization’s culture isn’t defined by the values hanging on the wall—it’s defined by the behaviors leaders allow to continue. In Part One of Your Culture Isn't What You Say—It's What You Tolerate, host Chris Comeaux sits down with Tom Foster, President of Foster Learning Corporation and author of Premeditated Culture: The Consequences of What We Tolerate, for a compelling examination of how organizational culture is actually created.  Foster challenges a common leadership assumption: culture begins with defining what an organization believes. Instead, he argues that leaders should start by identifying the specific behaviors they want to see—because beliefs, values, customs, and ultimately culture become visible through what people actually do.

Your culture isn't what you say—it's what you tolerate | part one Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN); by Chris Comeaux; 9/926 Your organization’s culture isn’t defined by the values hanging on the wall—it’s defined by the behaviors leaders allow to continue. In Part One of Your Culture Isn't What You Say—It's What You Tolerate, host Chris Comeaux sits down with Tom Foster, President of Foster Learning Corporation and author of Premeditated Culture: The Consequences of What We Tolerate, for a compelling examination of how organizational culture is actually created.  Foster challenges a common leadership assumption: culture begins with defining what an organization believes. Instead, he argues that leaders should start by identifying the specific behaviors they want to see—because beliefs, values, customs, and ultimately culture become visible through what people actually do.

5 ways leaders can harness brain chemistry for happier and more productive teams Fast Company | Leadership; by Scott Curran; 9/6/26 Dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins offer a framework for understanding how recognition, gratitude, connection, and fun can strengthen workplace culture. ... Here are five ways leaders can put this brain chemistry and its good-inducing consequences to work.

Dolly Parton’s 10 leadership lessons for business executives Forbes; by Edward Segal; 8/27/26 Dolly Parton, who [recently died] at age 80, demonstrated her expertise in managing and communicating about a crisis. She also leaves behind several leadership lessons for business executives. ...

Top challenges for hospice nurses Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 8/28/26 Hospice nurses are wrestling with work-life balance, heavy caseloads and other difficulties amid widespread staffing shortages. The dearth of prospective hospice employees is well known and has existed for years. In addition to impacting provider businesses, this trend also affects nurses on the ground. This often comes in the form of a bigger workload, more travel time and the emotional toll of working with the dying, according to Skelly Wingard, CEO of By the Bay Health.

Hospice nurses at Minnesota-based Allina Health vote to authorize 7-day unfair labor practice strike CBS News Minnesota; by Nicholas Lentz; 8/24/26 Hospice nurses who work for Minnesota-based Allina Health have voted to authorize a seven-day unfair labor practice strike, the union representing them said on Monday. According to Service Employees International Union Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa, all workers who cast a ballot on Friday voted in favor of the strike. The authorization comes amid negotiations to reach a first contract that have been happening for more than a year, SEIU said. Members allege Allina Health is opposed to "creating a fair compensation system that would give nurses extra pay for extra work"  and refuses to pay salaried registered nurses a holiday premium when they are required to work on holidays. The union added that the company also doesn't allow hospice nurses to flex their schedules.

Everett hospice workers concerned for patient care after private equity takeover HeraldNet, Everett, WA; by Jenna Peterson; 8/8/26 Home health and hospice workers in Everett are raising concerns that a recent management change is jeopardizing their ability to administer quality patient care. In 2024, Providence Swedish announced a “joint venture” with Compassus, a home health company backed by private equity and based in Brentwood, Tennessee. Now, the organizations operate as “Providence at Home with Compassus,” providing home health and hospice services in the western United States.  ... ... [Since] the joint venture went into effect 15 months ago, more than 60 employees have left the Everett location, not including those who have retired, said Milli Palmer, a licensed practical nurse and a member of the union’s executive board. The location has historically been home to about 200 employees, Palmer said. Union members say staff have left largely because of unsustainable patient load requirements and fear of losing their licenses. Throughout Washington, employees have filed dozens of complaints with federal and state agencies regarding what they say are inadequate patient care, wage theft and unsafe practices.

The business case for supporting the growing population of caregiver-employees — and how to do it McKnights Senior Living; by Kimberly Bonvissuto; 7/22/26 Caregiving no longer is just a personal or family issue — it’s increasingly a workforce, financial and health issue — but employers occupy a unique position in their ability to make a meaningful difference in the lives of their employees, according to two new reports. New research from the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Greenwald Research finds that unpaid family caregivers face greater financial strain, lower retirement confidence and more concern about future retirement risks than Americans who are not unpaid caregivers. Care.com also has released new research focusing on the challenges of caregivers in the sandwich generation, who face simultaneous challenges of caring for aging parents while also raising children. 

The corporatization of medicine, in salaries and beds MedPageToday's KevinMD.com; by Brian Hudes, MD; 7/11/26 In the 1970s, the American hospital was, in the industry’s own language, an “open workshop.” ... The doctor made the medical decisions; the administrator kept the lights on and the ledgers balanced. It was an arrangement with obvious flaws (fragmentation, duplication, uneven quality), but it rested on a clear premise: Medicine was practiced by physicians, and the institution existed to support that practice. That premise has quietly inverted. ... It is a corporation that employs them. The practice down the street has been acquired, rebranded, and folded into a system with a marketing department, a real-estate strategy, and a chief executive whose compensation would have been unimaginable to the physicians of the open-workshop era. The people who now set the direction of American medicine are, increasingly, not the people who see patients.

2 Ann Arbor nurses who transformed how people die mentored her. Then, she became their caregiver.MLive.com, Ann Arbor, MI; by Jennifer Eberback; 6/28/26 For in-home private caregiver Kathy Hopps, caring for two trailblazers who helped revolutionize in-home nursing and hospice care in their final days of life brought her journey full circle. Hopps cared for Ingrid Deininger, who co-founded Individualized Home Nursing Care (IHNC) in Ann Arbor in the early 1980s when hospice and in-home care did not yet have the presence in the U.S. as it does today. ... Now she cares for Lois Jelneck, another IHNC founder who is currently under hospice care at the age of 97.