Decision Assist is seeking applications from eligible organisations for enabling grants to support projects that aim to implement linkage strategies that have the potential to improve the quality of end-of-life care for older people in residential and community settings.
Applications close September 12. More information can be found here.
“I don’t get Twitter.”
“I don’t have time to … um, tweet!”
“Nobody cares what I had for lunch.”
As an (ahem) senior medical staff member I get a lot of raised eyebrows when I talk about Twitter. Some people (most people?) haven’t actually had a look themselves but have views about it being lightweight, superficial and a time waster.
Twitter is part of a revolution in health care; we are moving from the one-way “doctor knows best” model to a two-way dialogue in which patients and carers are actively engaged with health professionals and participate in their own health care.
I use Twitter mostly professionally. Surprised? Since I joined, the answer to the question, “Did you see the xyz paper?” has turned from a probably ‘No’ to a certain ‘Yes’. I have seen everything! I have “met” amazing people all around the world; patients, carers, other health professionals, health care leaders.
There are heaps of articles about why health care professionals should use Twitter online.
For me, the benefits in Twitter are in
For research, it’s an amazing tool to bring together ideas and people and talk about their work. When I was looking at setting up a project to improve breathlessness in palliative patients, I asked my Twitter mates as well as doing a formal lit search. They kindly send me a stack of stuff including some unpublished data by leaders in the field which I had no way of knowing about otherwise. I was able to connect with people doing similar work in the UK.
Here’s a proper talk about how to get on to Twitter
My quick summary would be
“interested in learning about #palliative opioid use in africa #hpmglobal”
Next time… twitter 102 – I know what a hashtag is – what’s next?
Cheers, Sonia
Some references:
http://futuredocsblog.com/top-twitter-myths-tips/
Should doctors use Twitter? http://www.amednews.com/article/20090629/business/306299993/4/
Reads for your weekend from across the Palliverse…
How to determine the order of authorship in an academic paper (@paulisci)
Presenting your research findings at a meeting? Here are some useful tips to improve your delivery (Lifehacker)
As I walk through hospital corridors, I’m always grateful for the beautiful artworks displayed. However, I don’t often stop to consider the themes portrayed. Art columnist Jonathon Jones asks, Should hospital art be jolly – or should it portray the truth about pain? (The Guardian). Meanwhile, More hospitals use the healing power of art (Wall Street Journal). What are your thoughts? Continue reading
Following the success of the inaugural colloquium last year, the Centre for Palliative Care (part of St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and a Collaborating Centre of the University of Melbourne) organised another excellent gathering of around eighty palliative care researchers on 7-8th August 2014, which was held in the elegant surroundings of the Rendezvous Grand Hotel Melbourne.
The conference kicked off with the Early Career Researcher Breakfast Forum. Entitled ‘Building a Career in Research’, dozens of eager early career researchers (and quite a few self-professed ‘early early career researchers’) listened intently to talks from Prof Jon Emery, A/Prof Jenny Philip, Prof Janet Hiller and Anna Ugalde. They prescribed healthy doses of ‘persistence, mentorship, good ideas and luck’, encouraged brevity when writing project proposals (‘write like Tim Winton’), explored the importance of mentorship and collaboration, and provided invaluable tips on how to apply for funding and disseminate findings. The interactive panel discussion at the conclusion of the forum offered up even more open and honest advice, rounding off a great start to the two-day event. Continue reading
A round-up from elsewhere on the web, which may appeal to the Palliverse community. Topics will include palliative care, healthcare and social media and academic research. (Is this something you’d like to see regularly? If so, please comment or do our quick survey.)
Those with an interest in research will enjoy the new @Lego_Academics twitter account. (Hint: you don’t need your own twitter account to view it.) It features the first Lego female scientists. The account has >2500 followers and has only been tweeting for 12 hours!
The Guardian reports that a French hospital is opening a wine bar in its palliative care centre, with the aim of “re-humanising” patients. I’ve heard of a palliative care unit with a drinks trolley – does your service have one? Continue reading
Diabetes management in palliative care is often tricky. Trying to optimise quality of life, and finding a balance between the burden of diabetes treatment (such as checking blood sugars, diabetic diet and medication side effects) and the sequelae of uncontrolled blood sugars (like unpleasant symptoms and infections) is difficult. As a patient’s weight, diet, metabolism and organ function change, the risk of hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar) increases. Adding further difficulty is that patients with chronic diabetes have often spent years being told that they need to keep strict control of their blood sugars, in order to avoid the awful long-term consequences of poorly-controlled diabetes. It can be difficult to convince patients, their families and carers blood sugar control can be relaxed in the palliative care setting. Continue reading
I wonder how many people reading this have tried to come up with a catchy title for something. Those random thoughts of: “If I was going to invent a breakfast cereal it would definitely be called… ” or our mental play around the name of a book that we would like to write where the pun will be just clever enough for us to get away with it; or our musing around a better name for a café that has all the potential (good coffee, the appropriate number of hipsters) but just not that vital title.
As both mere humans and as professionals in the palliative care sphere, how often do we catch ourselves or those around us contemplating the big questions of life, or more specifically, death? Quite often, I imagine… Yet many of us still find ourselves tongue-tied on the subject. Even as professionals in the ‘business’ of dying, we may approach conversations on the subject with a certain reluctance. How do we gauge the readiness of a person to face their own mortality? How do we establish a person’s preferences for disclosure? These are complex questions with perhaps no one easy answer – unless of course, you’re a kid, right? Continue reading
Generations of junior medical staff had internally rolled their eyes when I voiced my theory about conjunctivitis meaning that the patient would die soon, then been astounded by my prognostic skills when the patient deteriorated into the terminal phase. It was time to put my reputation where my mouth was and do a prospective audit. Did diagnosis and treatment of conjunctivitis in the inpatient palliative care setting mean that the patient had a very poor prognosis? Continue reading
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