28 June 2021
Course provides further insight into palliative care Congratulations to healthcare assistants at Waikari Hospital, servicing the Hurunui community, who have just completed a palliative care course and received their certificates. The ‘Palliative Care for Caregivers’ course run by Nurse Maude Palliative Clinical Assessor Vicky Telford was made up of four one-hour sessions over a month. The course was just for healthcare assistants (HCAs) and Vicky visited Waikari to conduct it, says Nurse Manager Waikari Hospital, Helen West. “The aim was to provide education for HCAs on palliative care as they work as the second nurse in rural hospitals.”
Proudly holding their certificates, from left, Healthcare Assistants Jan Brocker, Nicky Liang, Lynda Crichton, Coreen Fletcher, and Anne-Marie Bovey. Not pictured, Dorte Duckworth
Feedback from HCAs was that they enjoyed the course, learned a lot and it also reinforced what they already knew. Previously Nurse Maude provided a palliative care education package for registered nurses and HCAs together, but it is now split due to different requirements, she says.
The Nurse Maude Hospice Palliative team provide education to Age Related Care (ARC) staff and Canterbury DHB rural hospitals have ARC patients as part of their contract.
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