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From our Director
Prof Jennifer Tieman
RePaDD Director
(@JenniferTieman)
It is very exciting to be able to share with our membership and our research community that Flinders University’s Academic Senate approved the renewal of the Research Centre for Palliative Care, Death and Dying (RePaDD) for the period 2023-2025 at its November meeting. This followed a formal panel review process. The panel reported that the Centre had a clear vision of its purpose with strong links to local and national care providers and a focus on translating its research to partners and end-users. We look forward to working with our partners and community in continuing to contribute to palliative care across the health and aged care systems, across the community including patients, carers, and families, and across the digital environment.
We have also commenced a set of new studies and we look forward to sharing products and initiatives from our national projects and findings from our research studies.
RePaDD updates
Congratulations to Muireann O’Loughlin, Caroline Phelan, Tim To and Peter Allcroft, who have successfully taken out the People’s Choice Award for Best Poster (Clinical Trials) at the 2022 SAHLN Research Week.
The team won for their study ‘Effectiveness of a novel approach to managing dry mouth in palliative care’. They showed that ice cubes made from a mint cordial could reduce the sensation of dry mouth and thirst in people at the end of life. The team is looking to expand the study to other populations.
CareSearch: Palliative care information hub developed with nurses for nurses
Working with a steering committee of 6 nurses from aged care, community, acute, and rural and remote sectors, CareSearch has recently launched its re-developed Nurses Hub. Providing practical and actionable support for nurses new to palliative care as well as for those with experience, it contains new sections and expanded content across:
- Palliative Care Nursing: understand what, where and who of palliative care nursing practice
- Communication: an essential part of palliative care, explore ways to gather and share information respectfully and compassionately
- Assessment: find out how to recognise needs and monitor for changes
- The Dying Patient: understand how to recognise and manage imminent death and address after-death care
- Loss, Grief, and Bereavement: learn how to support those going through grief and bereavement
- Tools for nurses in palliative care: a range of forms, checklists, and tools to assist you in providing palliative care
New Resources from CarerHelp
The CarerHelp Project is launching new resources on their website to help Australia’s diverse communities and carers make the best possible end of life care decisions. The new resources support a range of communities including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, the LGBTIQ+ community and carers who speak languages other than English.
The resources cover the different areas and stages of caring including getting started, when illness is progressing, and grief and bereavement. New resources have been developed for support workers who may, as part of their role, provide support to a diverse range of people and their families at end of life.
ELDAC Coffee Cart Competition
Well done to the team at the End of Life Directions for Aged Care (ELDAC) project for the success of their recent Coffee Cart Competition, and coverage in Aged Care News: 'Coffee helping to stir much-needed end of life conversations in aged care'.
This initiative invited the aged care sector to have a cuppa and start a conversation about death, dying and end of life care – a topic that remains taboo in many aged care facilities across Australia.
ARIIA includes palliative care and end of life focus
Aged Care Research & Industry Innovation Australia (ARIIA) aims to build the aged care workforce capability by promoting and facilitating innovation and research with RePaDD as a partner in the ARIIA project, building the Knowledge and Implementation Hub (KIH).
Sixty-six per cent of deaths registered in Australia in 2020 were among people aged 75 or over (60% for males and 73% for females). The median age at death was 79 years for males and 85 years for females, with many having used aged care services prior to death.
So, it is no surprise that the aged care sector saw knowledge about palliative care needed to be included in ARIIA’s resources. The KIH team created the palliative care and end of life resources based on a scoping review and an environmental scan. You can also watch out for grant rounds in the next few months with palliative care and end of life a priority topic.
A cross-sectional investigation and scoping review of palliative care bereavement services
A blog post written by Kate Jurgens, bereavement service coordinator and grief counsellor, for RePaDD
Caring for someone who has a life limiting illness, especially over an extended period, is known to increase the risk to a carer’s health being negatively impacted. To better understand what bereavement support is being provided, and what caregivers and family want, we undertook a scoping review of bereavement service descriptions in published literature, and a cross-sectional survey of a single site specialist palliative care bereavement service.
RePaDD Resources: White papers and reports
We have been making available reports of research studies that we have conducted over the last decade as white papers. While journal publication is a priority, the white papers provide a mechanism for reports, evaluation or longer data analyses to be made publicly available. A DOI means they can be cited by other researchers in their publications. Some recent white papers include:
Rawlings, D, Mills, S, Miller-Lewis, L, Swetenham, K, Tieman, J. National Death Doula Roundtable. RePaDD White Paper. Adelaide, South Australia: Flinders University Research Centre for Palliative Care, Death and Dying: 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25957/8x3k-0588
Devery, K, Yin, H, Morgan, D, and Rawlings, D. End-of-Life Online Health Education Uptake and Usage by Australian Health Professionals: Urban, Rural and Remote Settings. RePaDD White Paper. Adelaide, South Australia: Flinders University Research Centre for Palliative Care, Death and Dying: 2021. DOI: 10.25957/p7b3-sg92
Erny-Albrecht K and Tieman J. CareSearch Quality Processes: Ensuring reliability and applicability across diverse stakeholder groups. RePaDD White Paper. Adelaide, South Australia: Flinders University Research Centre for Palliative Care, Death and Dying: 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25957/96x6-mk19
Congratulations to Associate Professor Aileen Collier
Lead researcher, clinician and author, Aileen has been jointly appointed by Flinders University and the Northern Adelaide Local Health Network (NALHN) as an Associate Professor in Aged Care and Palliative Care Nursing.
Associate Professor Collier will be based at Modbury Hospital in the first nursing position of its kind for aged care and palliative care at NALHN. The role will focus on nursing research leadership and development, supporting care for older people and recognises the value of collaboration between Local Health Networks and universities in building nursing research capability.
Meet a Member:
Dr Janine Dizon
Dr Janine Dizon is a Research Fellow in the Knowledge and Implementation Hub (KIH), Aged Care Research & Industry Innovation Australia (ARIIA).
She has extensive experience in evidence generation, synthesis, and contextualisation, including different types of reviews and clinical practice guidelines. She is passionate about complex interventions and translating knowledge into practice in various settings and economies.
She is now applying her skills and experience in producing evidence-based information for the aged-care sector.
Published research
End-of-Life Essentials education modules: a quality and safety initiative to improve health professionals end-of-life care knowledge, skills, attitude and confidence
There is a need for expanded end-of-life (EOL) care education and resources for health professionals in acute hospitals to help them increase...Read more
An international survey of Death Doula training organizations: the views of those driving Death Doula training and role enactment
Death Doulas are working globally to provide non-medical end-of-life care. They have different training experiences and views on the role...Read more
A qualitative study exploring challenges and solutions to negotiating goals of care at the end of life in hospital settings
The aim of the study was to explore the views of module learners on challenges they have faced when negotiating goals of care at the end of life...Read more
Managing multimorbidity: a qualitative study of the Australian general practitioner experience
Multimorbidity is prevalent in general practice and general practitioners internationally report challenges in its management...Read more
Palliative Care Within the Primary Health Care Setting in Australia: A Scoping Review
This scoping review identifies and details the scope of practice of health professionals who provide palliative care within the primary health...Read more
Supporting Carers as Patients Move between Hospital and Home: A Systematic Review of Interventions to Support These Transitions in Care
Hospital-to-home transitions become more frequent and complex as people approach end of life. Although carers are critical to enabling...Read more
Health and disability care providers' experiences and perspectives on end-of-life care needs of individuals with long-standing physical disability: A qualitative interview study
Little is known about the specific needs and experiences of individuals with long-standing physical disability at end of life...Read more
Events
RePaDD Seminar Series
The RePaDD Lunchtime Seminar Series has ended for 2022. We'd like to thank everyone who joined us for a seminar this year. We hope to see you again in 2023. In the meantime, you can discover our previous RePaDD Seminars, and learn more about research implications for palliative care, death and dying across the community, and health and social systems, via the Seminar Series Video Collection.
Want to contribute to the RePaDD Review?
Please submit your story or feedback to repadd@flinders.edu.au
