Context: Globally, people most often die within hospitals. As such, healthcare providers in hospitals are frequently confronted with dying persons and their bereaved relatives.
Objectives: To provide an overview of the current role hospitals take in providing bereavement care. Furthermore, we want to present an operational definition of bereavement care, the way it is currently implemented, relatives' satisfaction of receiving these services, and finally barriers and facilitators regarding the provision of bereavement care.
Methods: An integrative review was conducted by searching four electronic databases, from January 2011 to December 2020, resulting in 47 studies. Different study designs were included and results were reported in accordance with the theoretical framework of Whittemore and Knafl (2005).
Results: Only four articles defined bereavement care: two as services offered solely post loss and the other two as services offered pre and post loss. Although different bereavement services were delivered the time surrounding the death, the follow-up of bereaved relatives was less routinely offered. Relatives appreciated all bereavement services, which were rather informally and ad-hoc provided to them. Healthcare providers perceived bereavement care as important, but the provision was challenged by numerous factors (such as insufficient education and time).
Conclusion: Current in-hospital bereavement care can be seen as an act of care that is provided ad-hoc, resulting from the good-will of individual staff members. A tiered or stepped approach based on needs is preferred, as it allocates funds towards individuals-at-risk. Effective partnerships between hospitals and the community can be a useful, sustainable and cost-effective strategy.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2021.10.008 | DOI Listing |
J Am Geriatr Soc
January 2025
Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
Background: Deprescribing antihypertensives is of growing interest in geriatric medicine, yet the impact on functional status is unknown. We emulated a target trial of deprescribing antihypertensive medications compared with continued use on functional status measured by activities of daily living (ADL) in a long-term care population.
Methods: We included 12,238 Veteran Affairs long-term care residents age 65+ who had a stay ≥ 12 weeks between 2006 and 2019.
J Adv Nurs
January 2025
College of Nursing and Mo-Im Kim Nursing Research Institute, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea.
Aim: Digital health interventions, including health analytics, telehealth, mHealth and digitised healthcare systems, are rapidly advancing and demonstrate effectiveness in palliative care. Although end-of-life (EOL) and hospice care are within palliative care, they differ in outcomes, target populations and delivery systems. This review examines research trends to guide digital health strategies for EOL and hospice care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCHEST Crit Care
December 2024
Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC.
Background: Medical mistrust may worsen communication between ICU surrogate decision-makers and intensivists. The prevalence of and risk factors for medical mistrust among surrogate decision-makers are not known.
Research Question: What are the potential sociodemographic risk factors for high medical mistrust among surrogate decision-makers of critically ill patients at high risk of death?
Study Design And Methods: In this pilot cross-sectional study conducted at a single academic medical center between August 2022 and August 2023, adult patients admitted to the medical ICU and their surrogate decision-makers were enrolled.
J Pain Symptom Manage
December 2024
Aflac Cancer & Blood Disorders Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA; Emory University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Emory University, Atlanta, GA.. Electronic address:
Background And Aims: Surveyed families of children and young adults with cancer who participated in a pilot study of three coordinated telehealth visits (triad of patient/family, hospital clinician, and hospice nurse) during the first month of hospice enrollment found telehealth feasible and were highly satisfied with hospice care. The aim of this study is to further explore adult patient and caregiver perspectives on telehealth, specifically the benefits of telehealth, trade-offs with in-person appointments, and the impact on patient care and family end-of-life preparations.
Methods: This is a single-arm prospective pilot study of patients aged 0-29-with cancer initiating hospice care between 2021-2022 and their caregivers.
J Pain Symptom Manage
December 2024
Brown University, Providence RI, 02912.
Context: Research shows hospice primary caregivers report better quality of care at Non-Profit (NP) than For-Profit (FP) hospices, but there is variation in quality across NP hospices.
Objective: Examine bereaved caregiver reports of the quality as a factor of whether NP hospices are part of an integrated healthcare system that included an acute care hospital.
Methods: Cross-sectional study of NP Hospices used star ratings and adjusted hospice composite quality scores May 2023 publicly data reported on the Care Compare website.
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