BRANDT AND AQUAVIVA HONORED AS “PALLIAVIVE CARE POWER COUPLE” Kim Aquaviva and Kathy Brandt are well known in the world of hospice and palliative care. The couple has been together for 18 years. Acquaviva is a professor of nursing, and author of a book on inclusive care for LGBTQ persons. Brandt is a leader in […]
SHOULD ‘DNR’ BE REPLACE THE TERM ‘NO CPR’?
“The term ‘do not resuscitate’ should be laid to rest,” argue Amber Barnato and Maxwell Vergo in an opinion piece published in The Hill. Barnato and Vergo are health care educators who say the term DNR is rife with misunderstandings for patients, families, and health-care providers alike, and they lay out a case to update the language around end-of-life wishes.
HOSPICE DATA IMPACTING POLICY, CARE, AND PATIENT EXPERIENCE With more data sets and tools available, both hospice policy decisions and care operations increasingly rely on the data findings. Hospice News released a whitepaper titled “How Data is Driving Hospice Decisions.” The 10-page document focuses on how providers are using data to make care-related decisions […]
A new study in the Journal of Palliative Medicine presents a model that “predicts risk of death within 6 to 12 months with acceptable reliability in a general practice setting and has the potential to be incorporated into clinical practice and electronic records.”
WHAT IMPACT DO END-OF-LIFE CONVERSATIONS REALLY HAVE? Does it really make a difference when we talk about dying earlier rather than later? This answer depends highly on what difference you’re looking for—whether that’s the path of care, adherence to wishes, longevity, or other issues. Recently, NPR station WBUR approached this question by looking at […]
LESSONS WE CAN LEARN FROM DYING NONPROFITS The U.S. boast more than 1.5 million nonprofit organizations, and much publicity goes into the openings of new ventures. But less investigation is given to the question of why so many nonprofit organizations end so soon after they begin—often only six to fifteen years. Courtney E. Martin, […]
DEALING WITH THE EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL PAIN OF GRIEF Losing a person who’s close to you can be hard enough, but the grieving often find that this pain is compounded by a lack of awareness or support that have far-reaching impacts. These pains may include effects on emotional and physical health. From both academic […]
VIRGINIA TECH’S JACK DUDLEY FINDS QUALITY IN HOSPICE The Roanoke Times published “Hospice gave Virginia Tech professor a good year longer to live.” Charles “Jack” Dudley, who taught for two decades in Virginia Tech’s honors program, felt the battle of two diseases: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes. “I had these two doctors. They […]
RACIALIZED HEALTH DISPARITIES IN PAIN MANAGEMENT Yolonda Wilson, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Howard University, drove ten hours to visit her ill father in a Florida hospital. When she arrived, she was asking a nurse about his whereabouts when she heard his screams coming from down the hall. “Never mind. I hear him,” she […]
PHYSICIAN DIFFERENCES SURROUNDING PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED DEATH
CMS ANNOUNCES PLANS TO ALLOW MEDICARE ADVANTAGE PLANS TO OFFER MEDICARE HOSPICE BENEFIT BEGINNING IN 2021
A WRAL Spotlight article addresses the importance of spiritual support during hospice care. The article notes that this support is important in: 1) Affirming that the individual’s life has had meaning and value. 2) Focusing on the importance of ensuring the patient dies an appropriate death. 3) Finding hope beyond the grave, such as finding […]
Forbes published “How to Choose Hospice Care” from Next Avenue contributor Liz Seegert. The story is part of a special report from The John A. Hartford Foundation. Seegert describes the roles of home hospice, hospital-based care, and stand-alone facilities. It also provides patients and families questions to consider including: Is the hospice Medicare certified? Is […]
“This is the beauty of my life,” Oprah Winfrey says, reflecting on her mother’s death. “There’s not a thing that happens to me, that I don’t look at it as a teaching, learning, experience.” She’d gotten a call from her sister Patricia, who thought her mother, Vernita Lee, was near the end of her life. […]
Death with dignity has wide public support, according to a Gallup poll, which found that 73% of Americans supported medical aid, as long as it is painless. Today, six states allow the practice under different names, but Next Avenue reports that patient experiences “run the gamut.” Dr. Jamie Wells, a medical ethicist and a director […]
In his career, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel has spearheaded the Affordable Care Act and the opposition to the legalization of euthanasia. In an interview with the Milken Institute Center for the Future of Aging published with Next Avenue, Dr. Emanuel lays out an urgent need to improve quality of life, and explains why he thinks we’re […]