Observations from the 2022 Tasmanian Palliative Care Conference
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A blog post written by Grace McConnon, End-of-Life Essentials student sponsorship recipient
As a nursing student I have been part of providing palliative care to patients and families. I am passionate about developing my practice so I am able to provide patient centred care, and adopting a holistic approach to ensure all aspects of care are met. I want to improve my knowledge surrounding palliative care and the dying process, so I can provide this care and support.
On the 17-18 November 2022 I had the opportunity to attend the Tasmanian Palliative Care ‘Quality of Life’ conference.
The two-day conference had a full program, of which speakers from all areas of palliative care provided presentations from across the globe. All these presentations were educative and inspiring, and provided invaluable insight into palliative care in practice, current research and innovation, and palliative care through the lens of many health professionals practicing in diverse setting.
Kimberley Acquaviva provided a presentation, via video from University of Virginia in the USA, which provided both a professional and personal insight into palliative care. She spoke about her wife Kathy, and her diagnosis of cancer. She spoke about how the non-inclusivity of LGBTIQ+ among the hospice organisations in their area impacted their decisions, and ultimately led to them feeling unsafe in accepting hospice care in their home.
Dr Steven Pantilat spoke about the myths and truths in palliative care. He highlighted that the essence of palliative care was about helping people live as well as possible, for as long as possible.
There were many concurrent sessions held across the two days, all speakers and topics looked very interesting, so it was difficult to decide which sessions to attend!
I attended a session presented by Dr Shampa Sinha, which outlined the work that the specialist palliative care team at the Royal Hobart Hospital are doing with residential aged care facilities across the state. I found this session informative and valuable, as the improvements in the resident’s quality of life was evident, as was staff education and confidence surrounding providing palliative care.
I was very fortunate to be able to attend this conference and have only mentioned a couple of the incredible presentations in the above summary. A wealth of knowledge was shared amongst the presenters and the delegates, and I left the conference feeling inspired for my career moving forward and learning more about palliative care.’
End-of-Life Essentials have the following education modules to help you learn more on:
Grace McConnon attending the 2022 Tasmanian Palliative Care Conference