Engaging Future Healthcare Professionals as Caregivers to Hospice Patients in Comfort Care Homes

Experiences of Homeless Recipients of Social Model Hospice Care: A Photovoice Exploration

Homelessness and caregiver insecurity are barriers to accessing hospice for end-of-life care. Some communities have implemented a community-based social model of hospice care, and reports of its characteristics and outcomes are growing in hospice and homeless literature. This case report explored the experiences of social model hospice recipients using photovoice, a community-based participatory method to photograph meaningful aspects of care. Participants (n = 3) took photos (n = 93), journaled, and participated in semistructured interviews as co-analyzers. Through deductive codes from the literature and inductive analysis of data, 6 themes were identified: having a physical location to receive care, involving the community, having spiritual needs attended to, acknowledging family/family of choice, connecting with animals, and feeling cared for. Participants offered few suggestions to improve care. Social model hospice provided a location for care, funding, and social support to address housing and caregiver insecurity. Results corroborated the social model hospice concept (antecedents, attributes, consequences). Findings add to the growing literature with implications for communities and leaders looking to start or improve care. Results suggest that photovoice may be a feasible method for eliciting firsthand experiences of residents. Findings may guide discussions about patient-reported aspects of care for a more accurate understanding of meaningful social model hospice care.

Hospice Family Caregiver Perceptions of Benefits and Challenges of a Telenovela Educational Intervention

Background: Telenovelas show significant promise as a mode of education that could potentially enhance hospice family caregivers' (HFCG) ability to manage distress or pain for themselves and the care recipient. Objectives: We sought to understand HFCGs' perceived benefits and challenges of NOVELA using the Levels of Kirkpatrick as a conceptual framework. Setting/Subjects: HFCGs from two hospices in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Measurements: Semistructured interviews were conducted to understand perceptions of HFCGs on the benefits and challenges of the NOVELA intervention. Results: Participants (N = 20) in our study were mainly homebound, well educated, White female, and adult children of people with advanced cancer who reported mild anxiety and moderate self-efficacy at baseline. Three unique themes were identified: acceptability of NOVELA, usability and relevance of NOVELA, and the effect of NOVELA. According to our conceptual model, the intervention positively affects all three adult learning categories: reaction, learning, and behavior. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that HFCGs support the proposed NOVELA intervention and it appears to be an acceptable educational tool during hospice care (NCT04533594).