Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing : JHPN

Increasing palliative care presence in the intensive care unit (ICU) improves symptom management, increases goals-of-care discussion, and reduces unnecessary procedures in ICU patients. An interdisciplinary study team developed a palliative care trigger program in a 17-bed surgical ICU (SICU). Surgical ICU patients who met 3 triggers (ICU length of stay > 10 days, repeat ICU admission, and metastatic cancer) automatically received a palliative care consult. The purpose of the current study was to survey SICU health care professionals before and after the institution of the palliative care trigger program...

Because of aging and rising rates of chronic diseases, the demand for palliative care services is increasing worldwide, and patients need family members to care for them throughout the palliative care process. This study aimed to investigate the experiences of the relatives of palliative care patients during hospitalization. This was a qualitative study conducted with 15 family members. A topic guide was used to conduct semistructured face-to-face interviews. Content analysis was used to analyze the textual data...

This article describes a quality improvement project implemented by a national postacute long-term care organization aimed at enhancing the provision of palliative care to nursing home residents. The project focused on improving advance care planning, end-of-life care, symptom management, and care of people living with serious illness. Both generalist and specialist palliative care training were provided to nurse practitioners in addition to implementing a system to identify residents most likely to benefit from a palliative approach to care...

The adult/gerontology (gero) nurse practitioner (NP) delivers primary and/or specialty palliative care to persons and their families who live each day with a myriad of serious illnesses. In this role, the adult/gero NP uses their skill set to address the whole person (physical, psychological, social, and spiritual/existential) to improve the quality of life for persons they care for. This article is the fourth in a series of 6 highlighting the different roles of the adult/gero NP and the advanced certified hospice and palliative registered nurse, and how these 2 roles overlap...

Soul Injury is defined as a wound that separates a person from their real self, caused by unmourned loss and hurt, unforgiven guilt and shame, and fear of helplessness or loss of control. Tools and interventions have been developed to guide people impacted by Soul Injury. This study assessed the effectiveness of 12 tools and interventions provided during a 4-day Soul Injury Leadership Institute. This 2-part investigation included an online survey of participants who had attended a 4-day Institute training and a post-Institute narrative inquiry conducted as virtual structured interviews...

Medical and technological advances have made it possible to keep people alive well beyond what was once possible, leading health care providers to focus on life-sustaining measures rather than questioning the futility of such measures and considering quality of life. In the midst of the struggle to foster dying well in a medicalized environment, acute care nurses may be challenged with shifting the focus to providing optimal end-of-life care because of lack of training, time, and resources. A remedy for the current western societal approach to medicalized dying is to look back in history to a time during the late Middle Ages, when death was an accepted part of medieval life...

Tracheostomy involves a challenging care process in which both patients and caregivers have difficulty communicating. Loss of speaking ability negatively affects caregivers as well as patients. The objective of this study was to examine the experiences of caregivers of patients with tracheostomy during care and after the first vocal exercise. This is a qualitative interview study using in-depth interviews. We used Colaizzi's method of data analysis. The interviews were carried out with 17 caregivers from March to July 2023...

There 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. As programs expand to meet this need, there are new opportunities for pediatric palliative APRNs to practice outside acute care consultative models, within large children's hospitals...

The purpose of this article was to analyze the concept of "the fighter in the intensive care unit (ICU)" per the scientific literature and the impact this mentality has on care administered in the ICU. A literature review and a concept analysis based on Rodger's evolutionary method were performed to identify surrogate terms, antecedents, attributes, and consequences pertaining to the "fighter" in the ICU. Thirteen articles with a focus on "the fighter" were included in this analysis. There is a strong desire to remain optimistic and maintain high spirits as a coping mechanism in the face of extreme prognostic uncertainty...

Advance care planning is important and timely for patients receiving home health services; however, opportunities to facilitate awareness and engagement in this setting are often missed. This qualitative descriptive study elicited perspectives of home health nurses and social workers regarding barriers and facilitators to creating advance care plans in home health settings, with particular attention to patients with few familial or social contacts who can serve as surrogate decision-makers. We interviewed 15 clinicians employed in a large New York City-based home care agency in 2021-2022...

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Within the United States, approximately 330 000 military veterans die annually, but only 5% of deaths occur in Veterans Health Administration (VHA) facilities. To help provide end-of-life care for veterans, the VHA built community partnerships with community hospice and palliative care (HPC) organizations. Veterans experience unique psychosocial factors making it vital to ensure HPC organizations have access to veteran-specific knowledge and resources to reduce suffering. To better understand the strengths and limitations of these partnerships, community HPC staff (N = 483) responded to quantitative and qualitative survey questions developed using an access to care theory for veterans...

Female veteran populations are growing internationally and are more likely than men to develop certain serious illnesses, including some cancers. In the United States, fewer than 50% of eligible female veterans sought care at Veteran Affairs facilities. In addition, female veterans are not well represented within palliative care research, and little research exists that explores the female veteran experience of living with a serious illness. The purpose of this study was to explore female veterans' experiences of living with a serious illness...

Several challenges exist to providing effective, formalized end-of-life education for undergraduate nursing students. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the addition of a discourse intervention to the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium Undergraduate Nursing Modules effectively improved junior-level prelicensure bachelor of science in nursing students' knowledge and attitudes toward end-of-life care. This quasi-experimental 2-group comparison, pretest/posttest design consisted of a sample of 135 enrolled in a medical-surgical nursing class...