Workforce

What can I do?

Download or order a copy of the Practice Tip Sheets for Careworkers or Nurses. Perhaps start with:

• Talking within the Aged Care Team
• Grief and Loss among Staff
• Continuity of Care
• Case Conferences

Check out the useful resources are found on the Self-Care page.

Dealing with death and dying as part of your work can make you feel tired and stressed. Use the palliAGED Self-Care Plan (83kb pdf) to start and monitor self-care activities and recommend this to other team members. Helpguide has information about things you can do to take care of yourself.

Understand my responsibilities under the Aged Care Quality Standards and read the palliAGED InFocus articles on the Aged Care Standards to find out how the standards can support and improve quality of palliative care provided in residential aged care.

Be aware of my scope of practice.

Palliative care is normally a multidisciplinary approach to care so I make sure I know how to be a good team member and know what is required of me.

What can I learn?

If you feel uncertain about your skills check out palliAGED Online Learning. Modules are arranged by role/profession and by topic.

Watch the videos Work Together and Organisational Support in the ELDAC Home Care and Residential Aged Care Toolkits.

In the eLearning section of CareSearch check out the modules specific to Aged Care, GPs, Allied Health, General Palliative Care, Symptom management and other categories.

What can my organisation do?

Use the Palliative Approach for Nursing Assistants (PANA)_Knowledge Questionnaire (17 items), the PANA_Skills Questionnaire (13 items) and the PANA_Attitudes Questionnaire (10 items) (155kb pdf) to identify palliative care educational needs for careworkers in residential aged care.

Use the palliAGED Tip Sheets for Careworkers as part of regular training and upskilling.

Use the accompanying palliAGED Tips Sheets for Nurses to support nurses new to providing palliative care to older people, and for nurses responsible for training and education of careworkers.

The use of hand-held records or case-conferencing may assist with communication between team members. Download and use the palliAGED case conference forms for GPs, family members and care providers to assist the preparation and communication.

Organise a multidisciplinary case conference, at the initiation of palliative care, at a point of significant decline and for patients being discharged into the community from hospital. Case conferences can also be useful within the first 6-8 weeks of admission to a residential aged care facility.

Nurse practitioners may be a useful support to staff in managing end-of-life care. You can find out more about Nurse Practitioners at the Australian College of Nurse Practitioners.

Check out the tools that can be used to help identify and care for patients with palliative care needs:

• The Advance Project helps general practice nurses get involved with advance care planning and palliative care. Tell your staff about it.
• Interprofessional Education in Aged Care (IPEAC) Toolkit guides residential aged care staff in conducting an IPE student placement at their facility
• Cultural Considerations (3.40MB pdf) is a guideline for providing person-centred palliative care for Aboriginal peoples, Torres Strait Islander peoples. This resource was co-created by PEPA and members of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.

Standard 7 of the Aged Care Quality Standards requires all members of the workforce to have regular evaluation of their performance and for organisations to support any need for training and development. The palliAGED InFocus articles on the Aged Care Standards explain how the standards can support and improve quality of palliative care provided in residential aged care.