Mr Joshua Cohen1, Ms Ingrid Hardy1, Ms Jennifer Smith1, Ms Kelly Northeast1
1Northern NSW Local Health District, Lismore, Australia
Biography:
Josh Cohen has been a specialist palliative care nurse for over 15 years. Josh has worked both in metropolitan and regional care settings in NSW. Josh is now working as a palliative care nurse practitioner in Northern NSW (NNSWLHD) for the local community palliative care team in Lismore and surrounds. Josh is passionate about innovation in nursing models of care and collaboration with the community to ensure the delivery of equitable, relevant and compassionate palliative care.
Abstract:
Background:
The Northern New South Wales Local Health District (NNSWLHD) specialist palliative care service (SPCS) is split into three geographical footprints, covering regional and remote areas.
Across the service there are 4 Nurse Practitioners (NPs) who provide clinical leadership as part of a larger multidisciplinary team.
This includes Palliative care (PC) comprehensive assessment for people living at home, in aged care and in-reach to smaller rural and multi-purpose health services.
The PC service provides PC to a diverse population including local First Nations and indigenous communities, LGBTQIA, and CALD communities. The NPs approach to service is flexible based upon clinical need.
Aim:
A review of the PC NP role in specialist PC settings. Does having access to a PC NP make any difference to the delivery and management of palliative care needs in primary care settings for specialist PC staff?
Methods:
Five open ended questions sent out to the staff of a local SPCS for reflection on the contribution of NPs to the support of both staff and patients in the management of PC needs.
Questions for the review included aspects of working with a NP via telehealth, accessing NP for after-hours clinical support and any improvements needed in working with a NP.
Results:
Themes collected from SPCS review include clinical expertise, knowledge, support including support afterhours, complex and comprehensive care.
Conclusion:
NPs support the SPCS in many different ways; PC staff are easily able to identify and articulate the benefits of collaborating with NPs in support of their clinical practice and management of patients’ palliative care needs.
Through enquiry, we can see that NP led services are critical to sustaining the anticipated increase in need for community PC services through both the support of SPC staff and participation in PC afterhours support.