Digital Commons Network^™

The Integrated Support Plan For End-Of-Life Care (Isp-Eolc), Kaitlin R. Sugarman

Entry Level Occupational Therapy Doctoral Capstone Projects Class of 2025

The Integrated Support Plan for End-of-Life Care (ISP-EoLC) workbook was developed to address the growing need for structured, occupation-based resources for occupational therapy practitioners (OTPs) working in end-of-life care. Rooted in evidence-informed practice, this workbook guides OTPs in supporting patients and caregivers through one of life’s most complex transitions. Each chapter of the workbook focuses on a key topic, including early recognition of OT needs, meaningful role participation, iterative interventions, caregiver support, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Designed to be both educational and interactive, the workbook includes patient and caregiver-directed activities that promote communication, reflection, and emotional connection. It also offers practical …

Understanding Hospital-Based Nurse End-Of-Life Care, Knowledge, And Comfort: A Quality Improvement Project, Emma Doran

Honors Theses and Capstones

Providing physical, emotional, and spiritual care to patients at the end of life (EOL) can relieve their suffering and the pain experienced by loved ones in their presence. As death approaches, patients’ symptoms may require increased comfort measures, and it is imperative that all nurses be properly trained and prepared to provide this care. In this quality improvement (QI) project, the End-of-Life Professional Caregiver Survey (EPCS) and demographic and experiential questions were administered in the form of a Qualtrics survey to nurses working on an acute care inpatient unit at a healthcare organization in New England. 18 survey responses were …

Expanding The Volunteer Role To Include Advance Care Planning Knowledge, Andrea C. Leomo

Master's Projects and Capstones

Problem: Transition patients at the end-of-life are those patients who are not mentally ready or physically eligible for hospice thus not enrolled in a Palliative or Hospice Program. Only one-third of the Transition patient census had completed and filed advance care plans. Healthcare providers are obligated to perform life-saving measures unless documented otherwise. A lack of advance care planning can create complicated scenarios and cause discordant care incidents.

Context: End-of-life care is a delicate subject to navigate conversations with patients. With holistic care being a large component of hospice and palliative care, it is important to have updated and accurate …

Disrupting And Expanding The Discourse: Palliative Care Clinicians' Experiences With Patients' Non-Physical Suffering, Maxxine Rattner

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

While one of the primary aims of palliative care is to prevent and relieve suffering, both physical and non-physical, research to date has been very limited re: clinicians’ experiences with patients’ non-physical suffering (e.g., suffering that may be psychological, emotional, social, spiritual and/or existential in nature); both how clinicians work with/respond to this kind of suffering in their day-to-day work, and the effect of this aspect of their work on clinicians themselves. No research to date has considered the impact of palliative care’s dominant non-physical suffering discourse — which presents the relief of non-physical suffering as falling along a binary …

Use Of The Prepare Tool To Increase Completion Rates Of Advance Care Planning Documentation, Janella Thompson

Student Scholarly Projects

Practice Problem: One in three adults aged 55 and older admitted to the hospital lack advance care planning. Patients without advance care planning may not receive treatment that reflects their personal values, wishes, and preferences

PICOT: The PICOT question that guided this project was in adults 65 years or older (P), how does the implementation of a patient-centered web-based advance planning tool kit (I) compared to the usual practice of addressing advance care planning (C), affect the completion rate of advance care planning documentation (O) within 10 weeks (T).

Evidence: The current evidence has demonstrated that advanced care …

End-Of-Life Care For African Americans: A Staff Education Project, Oneika Natasha Rigby-Britton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Increased knowledge is needed among long-term care facility staff members regarding end-of-life care services. There is a gap in staff knowledge regarding how to initiate education about these care services with patients and family members and how these services impact patient care and health outcomes, especially among the African American residents in long-term care facilities. The practice-focused question addressed in this project was whether staff education increased the staff members’ knowledge about end-of-life care and how to initiate conversations with African American patients and families on available services. The development of this staff education project used Roger’s diffusion of innovation …

End-Of-Life Education For Long-Term Care Nurses, Naquita Altidor Jacques

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Long-term care (LTC) nurses play a crucial role in preserving the quality of life of terminally ill patients. However, many identify deficits in skills, education, and training for end-of-life (EOL) care. The objective of this project was to educate LTC nurses caring for individuals reaching the end of their lives on EOL care. The practice-oriented question concerned whether an evidence-based educational program improved nurses’ knowledge related to EOL care and confidence in caring for EOL patients and families. The End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium's evidence-based educational module was used to provide the content. Rosswurm and Larrabee’s model for change to evidence-based …

Optimizing Communication In Palliative And Hospice Care: A Toolkit For Audiologists, Sherry E. Queen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The prevalence of hearing loss increases with age, with age-related hearing loss (ARHL) being one of the most prevalent forms of sensory decline in older adults. Hearing loss is often overlooked in medical settings including palliative and hospice care. Screening for hearing loss in these settings is rare as is formal staff training on assessing and managing hearing loss in palliative and hospice care. An evidence-based toolkit for integrating audiologists into end-of-life care protocols is presented. This toolkit was developed to optimize communication in palliative and hospice care for patients, caregivers, audiologists, physicians, and other palliative care staff. Effective communication …

Nursing Attitudes To Hospice Care In The Intensive Care Unit, Claudia Lacivita

Master of Science in Nursing Theses and Projects

Nurses deliver care to patients 24 hours per day and are experts in the care of critically ill patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). The critical care nurse is trained to assess, treat, and monitor severely ill patients to facilitate their recovery, but may often feel ill-prepared and lacking the support usually available to the hospice or palliative care nurse. It also can be difficult to refocus when the desired outcome changes from stabilizing and getting a critically ill patient better to hospice or end-of-life care (EOLC). The purpose of this project was to improve the delivery of care …

A Step Toward Normalizing End-Of-Life Care: Implications Of The Palliative Care And Hospice Education And Training Act (Pcheta), Robert Bulanda

Northern Illinois University Law Review

Despite their rapid development in recent decades, hospice and palliative care continue to face challenges to universal acceptance and access throughout American society, as the American population and medical professions are reluctant to move away from traditional preventative care throughout the death and dying process. The Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act (PCHETA) is a federal bill seeking to increase access to palliative and hospice care. This Note analyzes the history of the palliative and hospice care movement and the implications of the PCHETA, arguing that the bill acts as an important step toward normalizing hospice and palliative …

Hospice Social Work And The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act, Christine A. Couture

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This study was undertaken to explore how hospice social workers based at United States hospice agencies perceive changes in their work responsibilities in relation to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Secondly, this study sought to explore hospice social worker support of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act healthcare policy reform.

A nonprobability sample of availability was used to find research participants. The researcher recruited participants through online social and professional networking groups and forums and by snowball sampling methods. Self-selected participants electronically confirmed their eligibility for participation in the study, prior to completing the 20-question online …

Social Workers' Attitudes About Physician-Assisted Suicide, Ann W. Wheeler

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This study was conducted with the hope of better understanding the factors that shape social workers' opinions about physician-assisted suicide (PAS). A survey was designed, based on past research, to explore the opinions of social workers regarding PAS depending on the social worker's age, gender, religion, years in the field, state in which they practice, and professional experience with those at the end of life. This study was conducted through an online quantitative survey developed by the authors using mostly questions from a variety of past studies. Fifty-five practicing social workers or social work students over the age of 18 …

Two Cultures Of Caring: A Comparative Study, Lisa Armstrong, Chistina Polito

Honors Theses and Capstones

There is much that the UK and the US could and should learn from each other to understand the quality of end-of-life care, through comparison of practice, analysis of care patterns and via original research (Higginson, 2005, p.170). Although comparisons between end-of-life care in the United Kingdom and United States have demonstrated similarities and disparities in many contexts, there is little evidence of research that directly compares nursing perspectives between the two Atlantic partners. This research explores nurse’s perceptions and experiences of caring for people within a hospice context and identifies themes of commonalities and disparities in theory and practice, …

The Role Of Race In End-Of-Life Care, Barbara A. Noah

Journal of Health Care Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Physician's Experiences With Death And Dying: A Phenomenological Study, Deborah Jo Corker

Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological study attempts to gain the physician's essences, meanings and understanding surrounding death and dying. Starting with themes revealed in literature, in-depth interviews were used to ask selected physicians providing care: How does death affect them? Are physicians receiving adequate training in end-of-life care? Does the medical culture still see death as failure? How do they find meaning in end-of-life care? Using three different groups of physicians: early in career, mid-career, and retired, this research attempted to examine the phenomena of death and dying over apparent time and developmental experiences of physicians. Results: Physicians have not been adequately …

Hospice At The Crossroads: Can It Survive?, David A. Simpson

Journal of Health Care Law and Policy

No abstract provided.