palliAGED News

The palliAGED team had a meaningful interaction with ACCPA National Conference delegates last week. We extend our gratitude to everyone who engaged in discussions about our evidence-based resources aimed at enhancing the quality of end-of-life care. During these conversations, we sought input on your information needs with the addition of palliative care (outcome 5.7) within Standard 5 of the revised Aged Care Quality Standards.

The responses highlighted two key areas of priority: 'Improving staff understanding of their role' (73%) and 'Initiating advance care planning discussions' (65%). Additionally, the survey indicated that 'online self-paced learning modules' (74%) and 'online videos' (73%) were the preferred resources for bridging knowledge and skills gaps in this domain.

We will be using this information in the coming months to develop our practice resources to help aged care meet the new palliative care outcome. In the meantime, we invite you to explore our Practice Centre to discover the range of resources we already offer the sector.
 

Our practice tips for nurses and careworkers are one way to introduce and develop the palliative care understanding, confidence, and capability of your workforce. Another is our Introduction Modules for aged care.   

We invite you to visit the palliAGED team at Booth #62 during the upcoming ACCPA National Conference from October 25th to 27th. Here you can discover a range of knowledge and practice resources aimed at supporting nurses and care workers in delivering high-quality palliative care. Take advantage of this opportunity to engage with our team, explore our resources, and gain insights into effective palliative care practices in aged care. As an additional incentive, we encourage you to participate in our competition for a chance to win a hamper of delicious South Australian goodies. We look forward to meeting you at Booth #62.

Our team were pleased to meet many aged care staff with an interest in palliative care at the Oceanic Palliative Care Conference earlier this month. Thank you to those of you that took the time to tell us your thoughts on our resources and how you use them. Overall, the feedback from the conference indicated most people used palliAGED and/or CareSearch resources to increase their own knowledge (26%) or that of others in their team (21%). We were also pleased to learn that 86% of people who have used our resources believe they led to improved palliative care knowledge, care quality, or organisational processes.

We appreciate the recent feedback you provided regarding our free palliAGED printed resources, which you ordered through our online form. We’d like to share some important insights you shared with us: (1) Nurses and careworkers benefit from the short, clear information written in simple language, (2) the printed format helps aged care workers understand that different pieces of information form a comprehensive set of resources and interconnected practice elements, (3) the reflection questions in the palliAGED Practice Tip Sheets stimulate meaningful discussion, (4) the Tip Sheets are being used for induction and ongoing team learning, (5) they are particularly helpful to aged care workers with limited experience, and they also support workers from diverse backgrounds, and (6) many were unaware of the Getting started with palliAGED resources but found it a very useful guide. You can order any of these resources via our online order form.  

Attending the Oceanic Palliative Care Conference? Come and visit The Department of Health and Aged Care trade booth #25 for a lunch time session where you can meet Dr Priyanka Vandersman from ELDAC and Dr Raechel Damarell from CareSearch on Thursday 14 September 2023 between 12.30pm -1.00pm.

During 2023-2026, we will continue to ensure the currency of the palliAGED website and, in particular, we will update our Practice Centre and the Australian Context section. We are also interested to understand how the aged care workforce and service use palliAGED resources and to help us do this we are looking at developing a framework of reach and impact measures. We are keen to continue working closely with the sector to ensure that what we produce is valuable and relevant as well, as built on the evidence for practice and care. We are always open to feedback and ideas so please share them by emailing us at palliaged@flinders.edu.au

The palliAGED/CareSearch team will be attending the Oceanic Palliative Care Conference in Sydney, 13-15 September 2023. Look out for our posters and come and visit our booth to pick up resources to share with your team and talk to us about your needs and how we can work together.

The Department of Health and Aged Care has curated a select set of palliative care education and training opportunities for aged care workers (96kb pdf) and for primary care (93kb pdf). Good to see that palliAGED is seen as a set resource for aged care and CareSearch for primary care. We will continue to support the health and aged care work force with education and training options, practical resources and access to evidence and information.

Many people with palliative care needs are supported to stay in their own home. Depending on your situation you may need specialised equipment or changes in your home or that of the people you care for to make this possible. To help you prepare we have added new content to the How to Care section of palliAGED.