Applying Lessons From Ars Moriendi to Foster Dying Well in Acute Care Settings.

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.

Heat Islands and Chronic Disease: Could African Americans Be More Vulnerable to Heat-Related Health Impacts?

Global warming and environmental heat stress are public health concerns. Urban heat islands, metropolitan areas with higher temperatures compared to their surrounding rural areas, compound the effects of increased environmental heat. In addition to acute heat-related illness, increased environmental heat is linked to exacerbation of chronic diseases.

Routine Depression Screenings for Advanced Cancer Patients: Reducing Disparities, Identifying Depression, and Improving Quality of Life.

Advanced cancer patients are at an increased risk of developing depressive symptoms, which can lead to major depressive disorder and a poor quality of life. It is important that symptoms of depression to be addressed early and frequently throughout the trajectory of the disease process. Depression is underdiagnosed and therefore undertreated in advanced cancer patients.