Natalie Fry – Placement Outcome Project

Natalie completed a 2 day PEPA placement at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH) Palliative Care Liaison Service. The placement involved Natalie observing inpatient consults with palliative care patients that were referred from admitting teams.

The placement was highly beneficial to experience a different approach to Palliative Care. Both days, Natalie accompanied a Clinical Nurse and registrar as they provided palliative care reviews across RBWH. Natalie was able to learn their processes for discharge planning to the Metro North community Palliative Care sector, review different clinical documents and processes and observe team discussions regarding management and approaches to care.

Upon return from my placement, Natalie presented a summary of her placement and the design of the RBWH Palliative Care service (see PowerPoint attached below). Natalie included suggestions from her learnings forward to the Toowoomba Palliative Care service in which she works.

These suggestions were:

  • Soul Bowl​ – a reflective exercise that discusses deceased patients care to provide an opportunity for colleagues to debrief. This has been implemented and working very well
  • Adapt Morbidity and Mortality proforma​ – a copy of this form was taken to potentially adapt to the TBH SPCCS morbidity and mortality meetings for a official way to document these meetings.
  • PCOC stickers with Phase / RUG /AKPS​ – suggested to have specific stickers to use in patient records for each review.
  • More exposure to inpatient consults to improve prescribing / conversion​ – suggested the regular participation of community CN’s to attend ward rounds to improve knowledge and support ongoing education.

Natalie’s presentation – click the image to access.

I hope you were successful at integrating some of your suggestions in to your workplace Natalie and thankyou for attending the PEPA placement.

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