Palliverse has heard about two PhD scholarships in the area of improving psychosocial support and education for people with cancer and their carers, at Curtin University in Perth, WA. Scholarships are available to health professionals (particularly nurses and radiation therapists). For more details see the Curtin University website.
Today Palliverse talks to Assistant Professor Kasia Bail (@Kasia_Bail) from the University of Canberra. Kasia is a nurse, a researcher, a kung fu instructor and a drummer in a metal band. She came to our attention via social media when we noticed her crowdfunding campaign for the next stage of her research into nursing care of complex, hospitalised older people. Here at Palliverse we are fans of crowdfunding, although we’re yet to use it for research purposes!
Kasia’s research aims to improve sustainable acute care health delivery for an ageing population, while her clinical experience includes general medical and acute palliative care. In her PhD, Kasia developed an approach to measure nurse-sensitive outcomes, which is currently being used to evaluate a Government-funded implementation of a cognitive identifier. Kasia has a passion for identifying and researching the structures and processes which impede or enable quality patient care, and sharing her learning and inquiry with nursing students, industry and professional groups. Here, Palliverse asks her about her latest research project and dipping her toe into the world of social media.
Dr Kasia Bail (image via Dr Bail)
Your research has led to a new concept in the care of older people with complex medical problems, “Failure to Maintain”. What does this mean? Continue reading
Has anyone watched Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal series for Frontline in the US? There’s also a selection of shorter videos at the Frontline YouTube page, like the one above.
Oliver Sacks has written a beautiful piece in the New York Times, about his reaction to being diagnosed with a life-limiting illness. (My Own Life: Oliver Sacks On Learning He Has Terminal Cancer) Continue reading
If you’re lucky enough to have a break over the summer holiday season, I would advise that you to avoid anything work-related. However, if you just can’t pull yourself away from the worlds of palliative care and research, here (in no particular order) are some related links:
Dear members of the palliverse,
We have been informed of a new funding opportunity by the Improving Palliative Care through Clinical Trials (ImPaCCT) NSW network. Here are the details that they provided.
Palliative Care (Full-Time, $30,000 per annum for 3 years, Based in Sydney) focusing on sleep disturbance in community palliative care patients.
Gratuitous holiday snap unrelated to post
I’ll be spending the weekend enjoying the sunshine reminiscing over holiday snaps catching up with tweets from #CancerCongress, #PPCConference, #COSA2014 working on an ethics proposal. If you’re looking for something to do, try this reading list.
palliverse.com 