Professionals & Healthcare Archives

Role and Deployment of Volunteers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

December 7, 2022

Volunteers are important members of the care team for clients receiving palliative care. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, data indicated a large decline in the number of palliative care volunteers. Walshe and colleagues (2022) conducted a survey to understand the roles and deployment of volunteers in hospice palliative care services as these Continue reading →

Interventions for Grieving and Bereaved Informal Caregivers

November 9, 2022

Informal caregivers are integral members of the hospice palliative care interdisciplinary team and quality care includes providing effective grief and bereavement supports to these caregivers. Thrower and team (2022) conducted a scoping review was to identify current interventions which address the grief and bereavement experiences of informal caregivers of geriatric Continue reading →

HPCO Queen’s Park Day 2022

November 8, 2022

Keep the Dying out of Hospital, Save $200M/Year With Excellent Care Monday October 31, 2022 The Elephant in the Room was back at Queen’s Park for the first in-person MPP Day since 2019. One-on-one meetings were held with more than two dozen MPPs and many more attended a lunch hour Continue reading →

Diaphragmatic Breathing to Reduce Family Caregiver Stress

October 26, 2022

Family caregivers of pediatric palliative care patients can experience high levels of stress due to poor sleep patterns, psychological distress, impaired relationships with friends and family, spiritual distress, financial strain, uncertainty of the future, and large changes in daily schedules. Beattie and Restaino (2022) evaluated the impact of a diaphragmatic Continue reading →

Inclusion of Essential Components of the World Health Organization Palliative Care Development Model in National Palliative Care Plans

September 27, 2022

In 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a model to guide countries in the development of palliative care. The model is a result of consensus among palliative care experts and builds on previous models and frameworks. Sanchez-Cardenas and colleagues (2022) conducted a study to analyze national palliative care plans Continue reading →

Gender Disparities in End of Life Care

September 14, 2022

Traditional gender norms and expectations may disproportionately impact in-home palliative care received by women. A recent scoping review by Wong and Phillips (2022) evaluated the literature describing gender disparities in end-of-life care to explore relevant themes to inform future research and practice. The authors define gender as a social construct Continue reading →

How Do Patients Describe Hospice Care?

August 31, 2022

Clients often have misconceptions about hospice and these misconceptions may create barriers to enrolling in hospice care. Such misconceptions may be related to the way providers communicate about hospice to clients and patients. Brereton and colleagues (2022) sought to better understand the language used by older adults to describe hospice Continue reading →

Factors that Contribute to Bereaved Parents’ Perceptions of Neonatal Palliative Care

July 20, 2022

Neonatal palliative care (NPC) provides relief for both infants and families of infants with terminal diagnoses. Families play a crucial role in the decision-making process for their infant, but their experiences with and perceptions of the support and care provided to them through NPC is unclear to health professionals. Hamel Continue reading →

End-of-Life Care Considerations for Muslim Patients

July 7, 2022

An individual’s background influences their needs and preferences regarding decision making and the dying experience. Habib (2022) and colleagues summarized the published medical literature relating to the need inclusive aspects of end-of-life (EOL) care for Muslim patients. The authors categorize the considerations into 6 aspects of care: suffering and palliative Continue reading →

Hospice care access inequalities

June 22, 2022

While hospices have traditionally mainly cared for white, middle-class clients with cancer, efforts have been made to be more inclusive of those with non-cancer diagnoses and other underserved groups. Tobin and colleagues (2022) conducted a literature review to better understand the demographic characteristics of those who access hospice care. The Continue reading →