Nurses make up the majority of the health care workforce and as such are at the frontline in caring for the sick and dying, never more so than in caring for people during COVID-19. Deb Rawlings, Senior Lecturer in Palliative Care at College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University, reflects on her 40 years of experience in nursing, Florence Nightingale's legacy, and resources to support nurses in providing care at the end of life.

COVID-19 presents an important opportunity to raise the urgency of palliative care in humanitarian emergencies. Rachel Coghlan, PhD candidate at the Centre for Humanitarian Leadership, shares her experience while visiting the Gaza Strip and highlights how persons living through humanitarian crises can teach us the importance of compassion and support for each other, especially to those suffering illness or dying.

COVID-19 is changing how we make decisions, plan for an unknown future, and respond to global changes beyond our control. Judith Lesson AM shares her views on the pandemic, and why it is important for all of us in the community to receive reliable and accurate information to make informed decisions.

Caring@home, a CareSearch partner project, provides resources to help at home carers manage breakthrough symptoms safely using subcutaneous medicines.To assist clinical service providers during the COVID-19 pandemic, caring@home have produced augmented caring@home packages for carers. These include an Emergency COVID-19 pack to support home-based care and help limit risks of community COVID-19 transmission. These packages are funded by the Australian Government. Service providers can order the augmented caring@home packages online.

Everyone should consider an advance care plan (ACP), however, ACP is a concept based on Western principles of self-determination, patient autonomy, informed consent and decision-making. These values are not universally accepted and compete with other beliefs for many older Australians. Dr Georgia Rowley from ELDAC discusses Australia’s diverse population and how diversity considerations should be made when engaging in ACP initiatives.