A Virtual Communication Workshop to Increase Confidence Using Telehealth Modalities.

Introduction: COVID-19 ended in-person communication training workshops at our institution, so we sought to provide a way for family medicine residents to hone their telephone and audio-visual skills online.

Methods: We developed a 2-hour online workshop where residents practiced delivering serious news to family members via telephone or videoconferencing call and measured participant confidence via pre-, post-, and 6-month surveys.

Results: Participant confidence in delivering serious news via telephone and videoconferencing increased.

Effects of Personalized Music on Caregivers of Older Adults With Dementia in the Community.

Introduction: Music is a relatively low-cost and low-risk approach to managing the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia.

Objective: This exploratory study provided personalized music for 3 months to 25 older adults with dementia living in their homes with a caregiver and measured how the intervention affected the caregivers, including their perception of distress.

Methods: Caregivers completed the Caregiving Distress Scale (CDS) at pre- and postintervention and also participated in semistructured, in-depth, qualitative interviews.

Use of Oxygen at the End of Life: Attitudes, Beliefs, and Practices in Wisconsin.

Introduction: Oxygen therapy for the management of breathlessness remains controversial and little information is available regarding the practice of using oxygen at end of life. Oxygen use in end-of-life care is increasingly being questioned, while the use of oxygen for routine "comfort care" at end of life continues.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of oxygen at the end of life and to understand its role in contemporary palliative care practice.

Navigating Evidence-Based Practice Projects: The Faculty Role.

: An innovative way to facilitate evidence-based practice (EBP) learning and to get evidence into practice is through academic-clinical agency projects involving faculty, undergraduate students, and agency staff. The central role of the faculty is key to successful academic-clinical agency partnerships. Faculty navigate the often difficult process of focusing students and engaging busy staff through initiating, maintaining, and evaluating projects.

Burnout and death anxiety in hospice social workers.

Hospice work has been regarded as particularly stressful due to the complexity inherent in the provision of end-of-life care. Burnout and death anxiety are especially relevant to hospice social workers because they regularly function in a high-stress, high-loss environment. The purpose of this study was threefold: to determine the prevalence of burnout and death anxiety among hospice social workers; to examine associations between burnout and death anxiety; and to explore the factors which may contribute to the development of death anxiety and burnout.

Use of oxygen at the end of life: on what basis are decisions made?

Discussing and conducting research on end-of-life issues is often difficult. However, it is important to initiate a dialogue about various topics surrounding death and dying. This paper looks at the available scientific literature relating to oxygen use at the end of life, describes associated attitudes and beliefs, and presents some brief examples of institutional practices.