Publications & Presentations
Journal articles
Higgins, P.C., Garrido, M.M., & Prigerson, H.G. (2015). Factors predicting cancer caregiver perception of care in the final week of life: Implications for healthcare providers. Journal of Palliative Medicine.
Higgins, P.C. and Prigerson, H.G. (2013). Caregiver Evaluation of the Quality of End-of-Life Care (CEQUEL) Scale: The caregiver’s perception of patient care near death. PLoS ONE 8(6): e66066.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0066066.
Kayser, K., Demarco, R.F., Stokes, C., Desanto-Madeya, S., & Higgins, P.C. (2013). Delivering palliative care to patients and caregivers in inner-city communities: Challenges and opportunities. Palliat Support Care October 24: 1-10.
Bernacki, R.E., Ko, D., Higgins, P., Nasrallah, S., Cullinan, A., Wilson, R., Jackson, V., Abrahm, J., Mort, E., Scheer, K., Block, S., & Billings, J.A. (2012). Improving access to palliative care through an innovative quality improvement initiative: An opportunity for pay-for-performance. Journal of Palliative Medicine 15(2):192-199.
Bookbinder, M., Glajchen, M., McHugh, M., Higgins, P., Budis, J., Solomon, N., Homel, P., Cassin, C., Portenoy, R. (2010). Nurse practitioner-based models of specialist palliative care at home: Sustainability and evaluation of feasibility. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management 41(1): 25-34.
Higgins, P. (2009). Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy: A Handbook for the Mental Health Practitioner, Fourth Edition (review). Journal of Palliative Medicine 12(7): 653-654.
O’Mahony, S., Blank, A., Simpson, J., Persaud, J., Huvane, B., McAllen, S., Davitt, M., McHugh, M., Hutcheson, A., Karakas, S., Higgins, P., and Selwyn, P. (2008). Preliminary report of a palliative care and case management project in an emergency department for chronically ill elderly patients. Journal of Urban Health 85(3): 443-451.
Higgins, P. (2008). Ethics in End-of-Life Decisions in Social Work Practice (review). Journal of Palliative Medicine 11(1): 119-121.
Higgins, P. and Altilio, T. (2007). Palliative Sedation: An essential place for clinical excellence. Journal of Social Work in End-of-life and Palliative Care 3(4):3-30.
Textbook chapters
Altilio, T., Higgins, P., and Goldberg, J. (in press). Social work practice in palliative care, in Csikai, E. and Simon, C. (eds.), Social Work Practice in Health Care: A Clinical Approach.
Higgins, P. (2011). Guess who’s coming to dinner? The emerging identity of palliative social workers, in Altilio, T. and Otis-Green, S. (eds.), The Oxford Textbook of Palliative Social Work. New York: Oxford University Press.
Dissertation:
Higgins, P. C. (2013). Is the waiting the hardest part? How cancer family caregivers experience quality of care at the end of life (Doctoral dissertation, BOSTON COLLEGE).
Fiction
Higgins, P. (2012). Man*hattan: a fairy tale. California: Amazon Digital Services, Inc. http://amzn.com/B008IXE5DO
Presentations
Oral presentation, Center to Advance Palliative Care National Seminar
“The Impact and Role of Social Work on the Palliative Care Team”
Orlando, FL, November 2014
Oral paper presentation, Association of Oncology Social Work annual conference
“Is the waiting the hardest part? How cancer family caregivers experience quality of care at the end of life”
Baltimore, MD, May 2014
Oral paper presentation, Society for Social Work Research annual conference
“Is the waiting the hardest part? How cancer family caregivers experience quality of care at the end of life”
San Antonio, TX, January 2014
Poster presentation, American Society of Clinical Oncology annual conference
“Caregiver Evaluation of the Quality of End-of-Life Care (CEQUEL) Scale: The caregiver’s perception of patient care near death”
Chicago, IL, May 2013
Oral presentation, Celebration of Young Investigators in Cancer Science, Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center
“Caregiver Evaluation of the Quality of End-of-Life Care (CEQUEL) Scale: The caregiver’s perception of patient care near death”
Boston, MA, May 2013
Invited speaker, Department of Care Coordination Grand Rounds, Brigham & Women’s Hospital
“Cancer caregivers and quality of end-of-life care”
Boston, MA, April 2013
Invited speaker, Palliative Care Grand Rounds, Massachusetts General Hospital
“Is the waiting the hardest part? How family caregivers experience quality of care at the end of life”
Boston, MA, February 2013
Poster presentation, Association of Oncology Social Work annual conference
“Innovations for Palliative Care Social Work in the Oncology Setting” (Award: 1st place)
Boston, MA, May 2012
Presenter, Adult Palliative Care Professional Development Seminar
“Palliative Care Consultation Etiquette”
Boston, MA, May 2012
Invited speaker, Bereavement Workshop, Brigham & Women’s Hospital
Presentation: “Coping with Grief”
Boston, MA, April 2012
Featured presenter, Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) Audio Conference
Presentation: “The Palliative Care Social Worker: Opportunities for Collaboration, Triage, Education and Outreach”
New York, NY, September 2010
Invited speaker, AAHPM/HPNA Annual Assembly
3rd Annual Social Work Hospice & Palliative Care Network (SWHPN) Preconference: SW Leadership in Palliative Care: Developing Family & Caregiver Support Intervention Models
Presentation: “Models of care: Social work roles and the palliative care team or, ‘How I developed this callus on my forehead and why it was all worth it’”
Boston, MA, March 2010
Invited speaker, The Art & Science of Palliative Care Nursing Conference, Sponsored by the Harvard Medical School Center for Palliative Care
Presentation: “Social Aspects of Palliative Care”
Boston, MA, June 2008
Invited speaker, Faculty Seminar, Sponsored by the Harvard Medical School Center for Palliative Care
Presentation: “Should we have employed a unilateral DNR order? The case of a dying Nigerian king and his fractured family”
Boston, MA, March 2008
Invited speaker, Social Work In-service, Sponsored by the Department of Social Work, Framingham Union Hospital
Presentation: “The Family Conference: A critical tool in end-of-life care and beyond”
Framingham, MA, January 2008
Invited speaker, Bereavement Workshop, Brigham & Women’s Hospital
Presentation: “What does grief feel like?”
Boston, MA, November 2007
Faculty member, Building Blocks of Palliative Care: Urban successes, challenges, and visions, Sponsored by Montefiore Medical Center
Presentation: “Palliative care in the critical care setting: a roundtable discussion”
New York, NY, July 2006
Faculty member, Palliative Care Quality Improvement Collaborative (PC-QuIC), Sponsored by the United Hospital Fund
Presentation: “Advance directives: communication, implementation, and NY state law”
New York, NY, March 2005