Blog

Eldercare, a South Australian aged care provider, received the National Palliative Care Award for its innovative palliative care services. Their dedicated palliative care team, supported by government funding, has led to high rates of advance care planning and a significant reduction in hospital transfers, improving the overall quality of care for residents and extending their expertise to other aged care providers in South Australia.

Providing end of life care can be rewarding, yet particularly challenging for nurses in intensive care as the momentum of their care is about saving lives. Professor Melissa Bloomer explores, from the perspective of ICU nurses, the sociological and cultural considerations that are important when providing respectful care after patient death. 

Many individuals in the Chinese-speaking community come from countries or regions where death is considered a taboo topic, making it challenging to initiate discussions about advance care planning. L Yeoh, Dr C Sinclair, Professor B Tan and Professor J Rhee explore culturally sensitive approaches that clinicians and service providers might consider when communicating about end of life matters with older Chinese Australians. 

Aged care faces a period of great and opportunistic change in Australia. Dr Raechel Damarell, incoming palliAGED Senior Research Fellow, shares her vision on how palliAGED will continue to support the sector through these changes over the coming years. 

Conversations around prognosis and personal preferences for end-of-life management options can be difficult for both clinicians and their patients. Dr Magnolia Cardona describes CHAT, an easy to administer, user-friendly online conversation guide supporting clinicians to start an ‘honest discussion journey’ with older patients or aged care residents approaching the end of life.