Building on our successful road trip last year, in May 2026 Associate Professor Kim Devery set off again to visit hospitals and services, this time in South Australia and Victoria:
The autumn days and landscapes provided a beautiful backdrop to our drive and our aim to discuss communication in end-of-life care. Clinicians in each location had arranged wonderful opportunities for events with rich discussions and time for workshopping of key communication strategies. Thank you for welcoming us.
Again End-of-Life Essentials (EOLE) was ‘home delivered’ and hugely supported by dedicated groups of committed clinicians who provide service and care to Australians in the south-east of Australia. We travelled over 2,400 kilometres and met with many hundreds of local teams of hospital and primary care clinicians. In grand rounds and seminar education, we often connected online throughout the broader local health districts to amplify our education.
We know it’s challenging for health care professionals to attend conferences and have the opportunity to be inspired to change practice and learn of evidence-based approaches to end-of-life care. So, End of Life Essentials will do our utmost to provide and promote our resources, face to face and online. Audience questions provided points where best practice discussions were elaborated on. Questions such as:
- How can we better support families?
- How can I advocate for recognition of patient end-of-life care needs?
- How can we support and liaise with general practitioners to provide excellent care in the home?
- Some families don’t wish for their parent, for example, to know that end of life is near. How can I manage this type of scenario without feeling like I’m withholding information?
- ICU poses unique challenges in end-of-life care once interventions have started, how can we compassionately wind those back?
These discussions were just the beginning of learning for many of the clinicians who attended these education seminars. We’re confident that our online education will provide the necessary variety of resources to increase capacity of workforces across all Australian settings.
We acknowledge and thank the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing who fund EOLE and enabled this free road trip initiative. We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work, live, and meet, and we pay our respect to their Elders, past and present.
We are so grateful to all the clinicians who support and disseminate our work.
Learn more in this presentation from the trip: 2026 Roadshow - Communication in End-of-Life Care and in our Communication and Decision-Making module.
