Mrs Melissa Bruno1,2
1Northern Adelaide Palliative Service, Modbury, Australia, 2Flinders University, Bedford Park, Australia
Biography:
Melissa has over 20 years' experience working in palliative care and is a specialist nurse. With a wide variety of expertise across multiple settings including acute care, community, aged care and hospice Melissa understands both the complexity of health care systems and the experiences of patients, families and professionals.
Early exposure to the positive experiences of death and dying has driven her to change people's perception of palliative care and end of life care and she is passionate about providing education, support and mentorship to clinicians. Melissa's recent interests include building palliative care capacity in acute care nursing teams.
Melissa is currently working as a Nurse Consultant with the Northern Adelaide Palliative Service and is a Lecturer with the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders University.
Abstract:
Background: The specialised palliative care nursing workforce is diminishing as is the case in the nursing workforce more broadly. With the increased demand for palliative care in the future due to an ageing population and increased number of people with chronic and complex illness, a substantial increase is required to meet demand. There is also a need to attract nurses and promote the role of the specialised palliative care nurse within the nursing workforce.
Aims: To increase the capacity of the specialised palliative care nursing workforce to meet increasing demand within both the community and acute care settings.
Methods: The Palliative Care Link Nurse Program identifies acute care nurses with a passion in palliative care and provides them with education, support and ongoing mentorship to strengthen the capacity of nursing teams in hospital to deliver safe and best practice end of life care. As a result of this program there has been development of two 6-month traineeship positions with the specialised palliative care team.
Results: The Palliative Care Link Nurse Program has now been running for three years. Three palliative care link nurses from the general wards have now successfully completed the 6-month traineeship position with the community palliative care team. The service has now commenced a 6-month traineeship position for Enrolled link nurses to work in the Palliative Care Unit. One trainee nurse has become a permanent member of the palliative care team.
Conclusion: This innovative program helps to identify nurses who have a strong interest in palliative care and gives them the opportunity to further explore this specialist role whilst working closely and being mentored by the specialised palliative care team. It provides opportunity for future recruitment to the palliative care team and possibility of having a pool of relieving staff.