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The views and opinions expressed in our blog series are those of the authors and are not necessarily supported by CareSearch, Flinders University and/or the Australian Government Department of Health.
As a course coordinator of the palliative care courses at Flinders University I have seen our post graduate student population change over time. Ten years ago, students were primarily health professionals who worked in specialist palliative care services. These students worked to expand and update their knowledge, sharpen their skills and improve their own professional capacity to deliver palliative care.
Today Flinders’ students still work to grow, change and develop, but the student profile is changing. We work with students who are employed across a range of health services including, aged care, emergency departments, pain clinics, medical wards, adult and neonatal intensive care units, and respiratory wards. These professionals are proactively seeking to expand their skills to meet the needs of the growing number of Australians (up to 52%) with a life-limiting illness and who die in acute hospitals.
The reality for some time in respect to continuing to provide quality health care is “Work smarter not harder”. The health dollar is becoming like a Northern White Rhinoceros , still in existence but rare. There is ever increasing scrutiny about how both of these prized possessions are used and treated. Continued investment is regularly linked to reportable outcomes, whether it be in the case of the Rhinoceros an increase in their numbers or for the health dollar reduced overall cost. You are more likely these days to find the CEO of a hospital having an MBA in hospital administration than being a senior clinician. As this is a reality we need to develop strategies / programmes that do have clinically reportable outcomes that they will comprehend.