Dietitians

These pages provide access to resources and literature relevant to the practice of palliative care for dietitians.

Role in Palliative Care
This information will help you to find out more about working in palliative care. It may include narratives from those working in the area, descriptions of the role, or why the position is important.

The Cancer Council of NSW has a brief summary of the work of a dietitian in palliative care.

Helping to support the patient in achieving the best possible quality of life, by contributing to good symptom management is a high priority. By definition, palliative care includes the family members, and the role of a dietitian is important as the reduction in eating is often most distressing to the carer.

Palliative care education and training
There are different ways to develop your knowledge and skills in palliative care. Web based learning modules, short courses and specialist palliative care courses and training are offered in many organisations and universities. Further information can be found on the Education pages of CareSearch.

The Program of Experience in the Palliative Approach (PEPA) is an initiative under the National Palliative Care Program. It is a supported multidisciplinary course with work placements, offered across the country funded until 2010.

The Occupational Therapy unit at James Cook University offers a postgraduate course ‘Allied Health interventions for Palliative Care’.

The International Association for the Study of Pain has produced an Outline Curriculum on Pain for Schools of Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy.

Research
Many health professionals may be interested in looking at palliative care research questions in their area of specialty. This may be work that is planned for the future. Any palliative care professional, regardless of discipline, is able to access the CareSearch Research Data Management System (RDMS), a tool developed to support research in palliative care.

Resources

Dietitians Association of Australia
Members are able to access evidence based practice guidelines for the nutritional management of cancer cachexia and chronic kidney disease, and also cancer cachexia and radiotherapy
The Centre for Palliative Care Research and Education – Allied Health Directory (Queensland).

Palliative care links and information
Palliative Care Australia is the peak national organisation representing the interests and aspirations of all who share the ideal of quality care at the end-of-life for all. It has produced the following policy documents:

The Department of Health and Ageing website has a palliative care section.

This page was created on 01 October 2008 and is due for review in October 2010
Last updated 01 October 2008