Ep. 52 - Once Upon a Care Plan: Research Stories at the 2025 HPNA Annual Conference

From the 2025 HPNA Annual Conference in Disney Springs, this special podcast episode brings the poster hall to your ears — featuring concise, powerful overviews from nurse-led and interdisciplinary researchers advancing the field of hospice and palliative care. 

In this special episode, we spotlight a series of innovative, nurse-led and interdisciplinary projects shaping the future of palliative care across diverse settings—from intensive care units and transplant programs to underserved communities and home-based care. Through a curated collection of research highlights and case studies, listeners will hear insights on everything from moral distress interventions for pediatric clinicians to new tools predicting hospitalization risk in home care, and reflective takes on recertification, bereavement, and communication training. Whether it’s integrating palliative care into community cancer programs, rethinking timing of goals-of-care conversations, or applying adult learning theory to clinical orientation, these stories offer practical lessons and fresh perspectives to elevate care for patients with serious illness. Tune in for a powerful exploration of what’s working—and what’s next—in the field of palliative care.  

Episode Highlights Include: 

• A Comprehensive Cancer Care Model 

• An Acuity Score to Predict Patient Hospitalization 

• An Interdisciplinary Comfort Care Initiative at an Academic Hospital 

• Providing Bereavement Support in an Underserved Medical Community  

• Integrating Palliative Care with Liver Transplant Candidate Evaluation 

• Reflective Practice Moral Distress Intervention For Clinicians Providing Pediatric Palliative Care 

• Goals of Care Consultations Impact Hospital Mortality and Transition Planning  

• A Novel Approach to Expert Communication Training 

• The role of altruism in marginal hospice patient recertification  

• Perspectives from Surgical Critical Care Identifying Indicators for Early Palliative Care  

Whether you missed the posters in person or want to revisit them for continuing education credit, this podcast episode delivers practical insights, inspiring strategies, and the pulse of innovation in palliative care — straight from the voices shaping the future of the field.