Healthcare Professionals

  • National Grief and Bereavement Day and Children’s Grief Awareness Day 2024

    Grief is a universal experience that impacts everyone differently. For many, the loss of a loved one can lead to feelings of isolation, confusion and heartache. Recognizing this, November is a month to promote understanding, provide support and encourage open conversations about loss through National Grief and Bereavement Day on Continue reading →

  • Self-care Towards the End of Life: A Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis on Access, Quality and Cost

    According to the World Health Organization, self-care is the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a healthcare provider. Self-care at end of life is under-researched. Existing studies on self-care are often Continue reading →

  • Experiences and Access of Palliative and End of Life Care for Older People from Minority Ethnic Groups: A Scoping Review

    There are many inequities and barriers that exist in palliative care and end of life care for minority ethnic groups such as reported poorer quality of care and access to pain management. But, it is unclear how these barriers and inequalities differ across minority ethnic groups in different countries, and Continue reading →

  • ‘Just a Simple Sausage Sandwich’: The Significance of Sensory Care Practices and Hidden Carers in the Hospice

    Dying and suffering are considered relational experiences within sociology and these experiences are rooted in social relations as well as wider social and cultural structures. Settings of end-of-life care are filled with many sensory and emotional engagements that is often hared between persons in a multidirectional care entanglement. Richardson (2024) Continue reading →

  • Interventions and Models of Palliative and End of Life Care for Homeless Adults

    Adults experiencing homelessness face significant symptom burdens and inequalities due to life-limiting illnesses and loss of rootedness. Lack of adapted palliative and end-of-life care worsens their illness and quality of life. Coverdale and colleagues (2024) conducted a review to identify interventions and models of care used to address the palliative Continue reading →

  • Private Sector Business Interactions with Bereaved People

    Bereaved individuals often need to undertake several practical or administrative tasks, such as transferring household bills to the name of the remaining spouse, following the death of a loved one. Research suggests that 61% of bereaved adults had difficulties with these tasks. Crooks and colleagues (2024) sought to explore the Continue reading →

  • HPCO Accreditation Program open to hospices outside of Ontario – Congratulations to Prince George Hospice Palliative Care Society!

    Hospice Palliative Care Ontario is thrilled to announce that Prince George Hospice Palliative Care Society achieved HPCO Accreditation for their Hospice Residence! This marks the first time a non-Ontario hospice has received accreditation. “Prince George Hospice Palliative Care Society can assure our communities that Accreditation serves as an indicator of commitment Continue reading →

  • Virtual Reality Videos for Symptom Management in Hospice and Palliative Care

    Virtual reality (VR) is a simulation of reality using a high-end user-computer interface that allows real-time simulation and interactions through multiple sensorial channels creating an illusion that the environment exists. VR is increasingly being used in health care settings, including hospice and palliative care with positive effects on pain management. Continue reading →

  • Happiness in Hospice Care in The Netherlands: A Case Study

    While hospice and palliative care is often associated at a societal level with suffering, many who have experienced hospice care associate it with happiness. While there are some studies describing the effects of various interventions on happiness, few studies have explored the phenomenon of happiness in the context of palliative Continue reading →

  • A Hospice Transitions Program for Patients in the Emergency Department

    This quality improvement study, by Baugh and colleagues (2024), aimed to assess the association of hospice use with a novel multidisciplinary care transitions program to quickly identify and enroll patients eligible for hospice who presented to the emergency department (ED) near the end of life. The study involved 270 patients Continue reading →