Literature Review

The Language of Hospice Can Help Us Get Better at Discussing DeathTIMEDecember 18, 2023Just because death is inevitable doesn’t make it easy or natural to talk about. In a new study, researchers wondered if hospice workers—experts in end-of-life care—had lessons to teach the rest of us when it came to speaking with patients and families about death. Daniel Menchik, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Arizona who studies the use of language in different fields of medicine, spent eight months sitting in on team meetings at a hospice care facility that were also open to patients’ families. ... In the study, Menchik noticed that hospice workers used three different types of verbs in meetings with family members: predictive, subjunctive, and imperative. Predictive verbs are used to assert things about the future and include words like “will” and “going to.” Imperative verbs carry a similar firmness, but include a call to action; the most common one Menchik encounters in medical settings is “should.” Subjunctive verbs convey some sort of personal stance when talking about the future. “Think,” “feel,” “want,” and many other expressive phrases fall in this category. When a family starts hospice care, “their capabilities to engage in intense conversations [about death] are usually pretty limited,” Menchik says. But he believes that hospice workers help bridge that gap by minimizing their use of imperative verbs. In meetings he observed, imperative verbs made up just 17% of the verb phrases used by hospice professionals. That’s fairly uncommon in medicine. Editor's Note: Use this article to examine the language used in your team meetings; to strengthen your orientation of employees from non-hospice settings; to engage your admissions nurses in a lively dialogue about its applicability to their experiences with patients and families.

CT to consider decriminalization of psychedelic mushrooms. What you should know.Hartford CourantDecember 10, 2023... In the same way that marijuana was considered for decades as an illegal drug, a societal shift allowed a refocus on medical marijuana for pain relief and other uses. Now, mushrooms are also being viewed for their potential benefits though some politicians still remain skeptical. The next step is that advocates want to decriminalize possession of small amounts of mushrooms, and they will be pushing for that in the 2024 legislative session. The state House of Representatives passed a bill last year, but the issue was never debated in the Senate before time ran out. Now, in a short session that starts in early February, advocates are taking another chance at decriminalization.

‘It will put us out of business’—Remington pharmacist fights corporate fees, under-paymentsCulpeper (VA) Star-ExponentDecember 1, 2023Remington, VA—A local pharmacist is joining voices calling for reform and oversight of corporate-run “Pharmacy Benefit Managers” (PBMs) he said are straining the historic small-town pharmacy he runs, located on Main Street since 1913, still with its original soda fountain. Travis Hale, PharmD, president of Apothecary Solutions Inc., doing business as Remington Drug Co., said the payment practices of the prescription drug middlemen are responsible for community pharmacies closing at an alarming rate.

The U.S. pharmacy industry is crumbling. Here’s how to fix it.