CareSearch Blog: Palliative Perspectives

Many people working in aged care are faced with challenges of not knowing what to do for someone in their care. Prosper Sithole from Bupa Aged Care Australia discusses her experience has a registered nurse working in aged care and how access to evidence-based resources, such as the palliAGED practice tip sheets, can support those looking after the elderly.

Across residential and home-based aged care at least 70% of direct care ('hands on' care) is provided by careworkers. Many of the people they care for could benefit from palliative care. To support current and future careworkers to understand and build capacity in palliative care, palliAGED managed by CareSearch, have launched an entry-point collection of evidence-based learning resources: palliAGED Practice Tip Sheets for Careworkers in aged care. Dr Katrina Erny-Albrecht, Professor Jennifer Tieman and Susan Gravier from CareSearch discuss this new freely-available palliAGED resource and how it is responding to the need for sector support while aged care issues are part of the conversation.

Susan Gravier and Paul Tait from CareSearch and Southern Adelaide Palliative Services discuss the newly revised Symptoms and Medicines pages in the palliAGED Practice Centre and how this information and resources can help nurse practitioners and general practitioners in symptom management of older Australians in their last days of life. 

Research suggests that health professionals may be afraid to provide palliative medicine because they are worried about whether it is lawful, particularly when a person is close to death. In their latest blog, Professor Ben White, Professor Lindy Willmott, Distinguished Professor Patsy Yates and Penny Neller from Queensland University of Technology discuss how the Australian law applies to providing palliative medicine at the end of life.