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Objectives: To summarize the challenges of teaching, practicing, and learning palliative care communication and offer resources for improving skills and educating others., Data Sources: A theoretically grounded, evidence-based communication curriculum called COMFORT (Communication, Orientation and opportunity, Mindful presence, Family, Openings, Relating, and Team)., Conclusion: The COMFORT curriculum is available for free through a Web site, a smartphone/iPad application, and online for continuing education units., Implications for Nursing Practice: The COMFORT curriculum provides resources to support the expansion and inclusion of palliative care practice not only in oncology, but also in a wide variety of disease contexts.

Objectives: To describe family communication patterns that give shape to four types of family caregivers: Manager, Carrier, Partner, and Loner., Data Sources: Case studies of oncology family caregivers and hospice patients selected from data collected as part of a larger, randomized controlled trial aimed at assessing family participation in interdisciplinary team meetings., Conclusion: Each caregiver type demonstrates essential communication traits with nurses and team members; an ability to recognize these caregiver types will facilitate targeted interventions to decrease family oncology caregiver burden., Implications for Nursing Practice: By becoming familiar with caregiver types, oncology nurses will be better able to address family oncology caregiver burden and the conflicts arising from family communication challenges. With an understanding of family communication patterns and its impact on caregiver burden, nurses can aid the patient, family, and team to best optimize all quality-of-life domains for patient and family caregiver., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: To describe the current level of utilization of informatics systems in hospice and palliative care and to discuss two projects that highlight the role of informatics applications for hospice informal caregivers., Data Sources: Published articles, Web resources, clinical practice, and ongoing research initiatives., Conclusion: There are currently few informatics interventions designed specifically for palliative and hospice care. Challenges such as interoperability, user acceptance, privacy, the digital divide, and allocation of resources all affect the diffusion of informatics tools in hospice., Implications for Nursing Practice: Caregiver support through use of information technology is feasible and may enhance hospice care., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)