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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.
The last five years has seen major change in aged care policy directions and regulation. In this blog, CareSearch and palliAGED Director Professor Jennifer Tieman discusses the importance of reviewing and consolidating aged care resources to ensure currency, relevance, and ease of access, and how palliAGED responds to the varied and changing contexts in which care is provided.
Discussions about CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) are difficult because they confront the person with death. However, when cardiac arrest occurs there is no time to ponder the pros and cons of CPR or to discuss this with the person’s substitute medical treatment decision-maker. Dr Barbara Hayes, Clinical Lead in Advance Care Planning and Palliative Care Consultant at Northern Health, discusses the importance of increasing awareness of CPR decision-making prior to acute illness and why discussions and decisions are a necessary part of medical treatment planning.
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.
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.