Hospice and Palliative Care for Undergraduate Nursing Education: Results from a Delphi Study.

There is an urgent need to strengthen the nursing workforce through hospice and palliative care education to support patients living with serious illness. The aim of this study was to identify skills/topics in hospice and palliative care for undergraduate nursing education. We conducted a two-round online Delphi Survey of hospice and palliative care leaders and clinicians in New York State between June and August 2022. Participants were asked to list and rate the importance of clinical skills and topics in hospice and palliative care for undergraduate nursing education. Twenty-eight participants completed Round One and 21 participants completed Round Two. Topics ranked as extremely important were goals of care, patient/family education, communication skills, advance directives, medication management, pain management, and symptom management. Our findings highlight the importance of including the perspective of healthcare systems leaders and clinicians in discussions about training of future nurses to meet the needs of patients with serious illness and their families.

Clinical predictors of poor outcomes in patients with sickle cell disease and COVID-19 infection.

We aimed to identify predictors of outcomes and survival in patients living in 4 major metropolitan areas who had sickle cell disease (SCD) and COVID-19 to inform best approaches to prevention and care. Data were collected at baseline and during the clinical course in SCD patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in four COVID-19 epicenters. Patients were followed up posthospital discharge for up to 3 months. Of sixty-six SCD patients with COVID-19, fifty patients (75%) required hospitalization, and seven died (10.6%). Patients with preexisting kidney disease (chronic kidney disease) were more likely to be hospitalized. The most common presenting symptom was vaso-occlusive pain. Acute chest syndrome occurred in 30 (60%) of the 50 hospitalized patients and in all who died. Older age and histories of pulmonary hypertension, congestive heart failure, chronic kidney disease, and stroke were more prevalent in patients who died, as were higher creatinine, lactate dehydrogenase, and D-dimer levels. Anticoagulation use while inpatient was twice less common in patients who died. All deaths occurred in individuals not taking hydroxyurea or any other SCD-modifying therapy. Patients with SCD and COVID-19 exhibited a broad range of disease severity. We cannot definitively state that the overall mortality is higher in patients with SCD, although our case fatality rate was ∼10% compared with ∼3% in the general population, despite a median age of 34 years. Individuals with SCD aged >50 years, with preexisting cardiopulmonary, renal disease, and/or stroke not receiving hydroxyurea, who present with high serum creatinine, lactate dehydrogenase, and D-dimer levels, are at higher risk of death, irrespective of genotype or sex.