‘The wisdom of the dying’ has perhaps become a cliché nowadays. A Google search using those few words returns around 39 million results.
But what I am really curious about, are the few words that really pierced your heart or absorbed your mind; those simple words that affected your spirit in a profound way.
Heart Connection by Alisa Looney. Photo by Nancy Regan, taken in Puyallup, Washington, used under Creative Commons licence.
Ed: Thank you David and Caresearch for allowing us to share this post focusing on ways to enhance primary palliative care for general practitioners. We at Palliverse agree that dialogue around the GPs role in palliative care is timely and important. We would welcome further contributions on this topic.
Hi everybody. I am a GP of 25 years’ experience. I deal a lot with aged care and palliative care. I recently completed a Clinical Audit on end-of-life care through Decision Assist. I wrote a short piece for Caresearch about doing the Audit for Decision Assist as I found the process of reflecting on my practice and looking at changes very worthwhile. Here is what I wrote.
Advance care planning is an important process that is increasingly being taken up by our community. When done well, it can help those with serious illnesses take control of their future health care. However, many people in our community still do not know about advance care planning, which means those who are likely to benefit from the process are missing out.
How can we do better? Continue reading
It had all happened so fast, much too fast. Unwell on Tuesday, into hospital on Wednesday. It was all bad news, he was told that he had only possibly a week or two to live. Confronted with his imminent mortality he decided to go to Hospice. He was worried about how his family would cope with him at home, he wanted to make sure that they would be looked after.
They had always done everything together as a couple, right from when they were teenagers. They had made all the important decisions together. But when it came to the decision to go to Hospice he had made it on his own.
Photo by Glen Carrie
Since arrival she had been very anxious and spent most of the first few days alone in her room. “I don’t want to interact with anyone, please leave me alone, keep the curtains closed and the lights off” – like a hermit crab withdrawing deeper into her shell.
Worsening pain had brought her to us, severe physical pain, the result of increasingly bad news about the toll her disease was taking on her body over the past six months, and also likely emotional pain as evidenced by worsening anxiety. Despite the team’s best attempts at connecting she remained aloof and guarded, sleep being a source of solace.
Tell us about your job.
I am the program manager for the Palliative Care Research Network Victoria (PCRNV).
What does PCRNV do?
We try to gain funding to conduct clinical and community intervention research. The PCRNV also provides an opportunity to network and collaborate with other palliative care researchers through PCRNV forums and workshops.
We also help with access to a variety of PCRNV funding schemes including; PhD scholarship, small project and travel grants. There can be support with developing your research idea into a potential project and grant proposals via the PCRNV Concept Development Workshops and also mentoring.
But, it’s not right to do research on people who are dying, is it?
When I first read Sonia’s post about the School for Health and Care Radicals (SHCR) a year ago, little did I know that I would be signing up for one of the most inspiring educational experiences of my ten years as a doctor, resulting in unexpected personal and professional growth.
“Anyone who wants to bring about change has to be ready to break the rules. But in health and social care, that can be really difficult. The art of rocking the boat while staying in it is something it seems no-one is ready to help you learn.” – School for Health and Care Radicals
Working on my SHCR workbook – over coffee
I feel like such a fraud. What am I doing writing a guest post for Palliverse, when I am a doctor who rarely provides palliative care? My justification for writing here is that it’s this very sense of uncertainty and underqualification that I’m feeling which is the subject of my post.
I’m a “general practitioner” — a “GP” as we’re called here in Australia. If you’re reading this post from North America, think “family physician” — it means much the same thing — but for convenience I’ll use the term “GP” today.
palliverse.com 