BRHS Oncology Nurse Kirsty Taylor is part of a project with Central Gippsland Health in Sale to improve oncology care for regional cancer patients and promote advance care planning.
Advance care planning is the process of ensuring that people express their wishes for how their medical care is conducted and who should look after their affairs in the event that they cannot do it themselves.
Kirsty and colleagues from CGH presented their project at the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia’s (COSA’s) annual science meeting, held on the Gold Coast late last year.
The COSA conference this year centred on addressing inequalities in cancer care, with particular emphasis on the challenges faced by regional Victorians and other minority groups who can experience poorer health outcomes.
The project, funded by the Gippsland Regional Integrated Cancer Service (GRICS)-funded project focused on advanced care planning and supportive care for cancer patients at BRHS. A similar initiative is underway at Central Gippsland Health.
The project led to the creation of a poster for BRHS and CGH that was unveiled at the COSA conference, where speakers including allied health members, nurses, doctors and consumers discussed aspects of cancer care.
Kirsty said the poster aims to educate staff at both health services about the importance of advancer care planning, and how and when staff should begin a conversation with patients about advance care planning.
“The idea of advance care planning is to ensure that any patient has control over how their medical care is conducted and who should represent them if they are not able well before they ever get to that point,” she said.
“Advance care planning can give the patient peace of mind for patients and the people they love. Patients will an advance care plan who their wishes will be honoured if things don’t go as planned, and their loved ones have a clear road map at what can be a very difficult and distressing time.”
Kirsty had the chance to display the poster for a day in a hall at the exhibition and to answer questions from COSA science meeting delegates.
“This was an amazing opportunity to showcase the work BRHS and CGH have been completing in the advance care planning space through these projects, discussing advance care planning with cancer patients and educating staff about what advance care planning is to make these conversations more common,” she said.
