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Background: Palliative care affords numerous benefits, including improvements in symptom management, mental health, and quality of life, financial savings, and decreased mortality. Yet palliative care is poorly understood and often erroneously viewed as end-of-life care and hospice. Barriers for better education of the public about palliative care and its benefits include shortage of healthcare providers specializing in palliative care and generalist clinicians' lack of knowledge and confidence to discuss this topic and time constraints in busy clinical settings. Objectives: Explore and compare the knowledge, values, and practices of community-dwelling adults 19 years and older from Nebraska about serious illness and end-of-life healthcare options. Design: Secondary analysis of cross-sectional data collected in 2022 of 635 adults. We examined the fifth wave (2022) of a multiyear survey focusing on exploring Nebraskans' understanding of and preferences related to end-of-life care planning. Methods: Descriptive statistics and chi-square tests to compare results between groups. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses examine associations of variables as to knowledge of hospice and palliative care. Results: While 50% of respondents had heard a little or a lot about palliative care, 64% either did not know or were not sure of the difference between palliative care and hospice. Those who reported being in poor health were not more likely to know the difference between palliative care and hospice compared to those reporting being in fair, good, or excellent health. Conclusion: This study offers insight into the knowledge and attitudes about palliative care among community-dwelling adults, 19 years and older living in Nebraska. More effort is needed to communicate what palliative care is, who can receive help from it, and why it is not only for people at end of life. Advance care planning discussions can be useful in offering clarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory study examined how twenty-two undergraduate students and fifty-six older adults experienced discussing dying, death, and the COVID-19 pandemic with one another, using the book Tuesdays with Morrie as a conversational guide. The timing of these conversations is significant as discussions took place in March 2021, one year into the COVID-19 pandemic. Thematic analysis of students' and older adult's reflections on the discussion was employed and three themes were identified: the inevitability of death, gaining and giving perspective, and the importance of relationships. The pandemic was especially influential within two of the three themes. The findings highlight the benefits of bringing previously unknown people together to engage in conversations about dying and death during the pandemic using contemporary literature. This study also presents a pedagogical technique for educators to use to help students engage in discussions about death and dying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gerontologists at state-funded universities are being challenged to demonstrate the value of their programs amid looming budget cuts. This article, third in a series reporting research and development of the Future Self exercise, suggests that the latest iteration of the exercise is an effective way to demonstrate the value of a gerontology program to community members. The article describes adaptation of the classroom exercise, and results of evaluation of presentations of the adapted exercise to 15 community and professional groups in Nebraska and Kansas during the past two years. Implications for future research and practice are identified. (Contains 1 table and 1 note.)

Introductory gerontology courses have the potential to enhance student appreciation of aging issues. The effectiveness of such courses for informing views about individual aging is little studied. This study, using a quasi-experimental design, examines the impact of participation in an introductory course in aging on 158 undergraduate students in a Midwestern state. The course used an instructional device, the Future Self Exercise, to help students acknowledge and plan for their own future aging. A pre- and post-comparison of student self-ratings and descriptions supports the efficacy of introductory courses using this instructional approach for educating student views about their own aging. (Contains 2 figures, 1 table and 1 note.)

Imagining what one will be like as an older adult can be a difficult task at mid life, let alone during young adulthood. Yet, pondering senescence has positive benefits for young adults with respect to their future physical, financial and social well being. This article describes an exercise used with more than 300 introductory-level gerontology students to encourage them to visualize what life will be like at 67. Student and instructor evaluations support the usefulness of this exercise in going beyond the textbook in discussing the challenges and benefits of aging. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

The events of September 11, 2001, seemingly changed the way Americans viewed the world and their sense of vulnerability. What is not clear is the impact 9/11 had on different age groups shortly after the attacks. A quasi-experimental design was employed to study the effects of 9/11 on 298 older and younger adults. Drawing on the work of Leon Festinger, this article explores the role of cognitive dissonance in discussing the reactions of older and younger midwesterners to the events of September 11 as well as their perceptions of President George W. Bush.

Services for caregivers of the aged and aging are on the increase given the increasing older adult population and the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia in the elderly. The benefits of consumer-directed services are examined and it is observed that caregivers who avail of these services are more likely to extend their caregiving role.

Educating college students about death and dying can be a difficult task when their experiences have been limited to trivial encounters through television and movies. The use of a book such as Tuesdays with Morrie (Albom, 1997) in a course on death and dying offers both college age traditional and older non-traditional students an opportunity to become acquainted with the dying process and to confront contemporary issues such as the September 11th tragedy in a non-threatening manner. This article describes the method in which this book has been incorporated into a death and dying course, a sampling of questions used with a class project and an overview of the adjustments made since its inception as a required reading.

Death is among the most avoided topics of conversation. Although end-of-life planning may greatly benefit individuals and their survivors, research and practice indicate that family, friends, and even health care providers resist discussing end-of-life plans. Consequences of not planning ahead have created a public health issue. This article describes a community-level intervention that facilitates those necessary conversations among elders who have at least begun to talk with others about their wishes. A free, three-part educational workshop series on end-of-life planning titled "Begin with the End in Mind" was developed at a midwestern university. A survey was distributed to all attendees to learn about their beliefs regarding end-of-life planning. Inductive content analysis was used to understand participants' thoughts about discussing end-of-life planning. Findings from 33 participants suggest a concern about making plans and ensuring others would follow their wishes. In conclusion, this article offers a roadmap for gerontologists and others to use in engaging the community to think about and act on end-of-life public health issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

End-of-life (EOL) planning occurs across the United States at a frequency of below 50%, suggesting a new approach to encourage action is in order, especially as COVID-19 and other potentially lethal conditions emerge. Utilizing data from a multi-year survey of 2,614 adults in Nebraska, this study examined demographic factors related to completion of EOL planning documents, and identified people with whom EOL wishes could, and had been discussed. Logistic regression estimates indicated more reliance on non-health care providers for EOL discussions. This shift with whom people would discuss EOL wishes may afford others an opportunity to encourage EOL discussions.