Enhancing end-of-life care practices on the medicine units: perspectives from nurses and families.

Background: Death is a part of life. While most often a sombre event, opportunities exist to optimise the experience both for the dying patient and their loved ones. This is especially true in institutionalised settings, such as acute care hospitals where cure and recovery tend to be paramount.

Learning needs and perceived barriers and facilitators to end-of-life care: a survey of front-line nurses on acute medical wards.

Objectives: Caring for dying hospitalised patients is a healthcare priority. Our objective was to understand the learning needs of front-line nurses on the general internal medicine (GIM) hospital wards, and perceived barriers to, and facilitators of, optimal end-of-life care.

Methods: We developed an 85-item survey informed by the Theoretical Domains Framework and Capability-Opportunity-Motivation-Behaviour system.

Enhancing end of life care on general internal medical wards: the 3 Wishes Project.

Background: Initially developed in the intensive care unit (ICU) at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton (SJHH) the 3 Wishes Project (3WP) provides personalized, compassionate care to dying patients and their families. The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate 3WP expansion strategies for patients cared for on General Internal Medicine (GIM) wards in our hospital.

Use of Video Technology in End-of-Life Care for Hospitalized Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background: Infection control protocols, including visitor restrictions, implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic threatened the ability to provide compassionate, family-centered care to patients dying in the hospital. In response, clinicians used videoconferencing technology to facilitate conversations between patients and their families.

Objectives: To understand clinicians' perspectives on using videoconferencing technology to adapt to pandemic policies when caring for dying patients.