Palliative Care Nursing in Australia and the Role of the Registered Nurse in Palliative Care

Abstract

The registered nurse has crucial preventative, therapeutic, sociocultural, and advocacy roles in promoting quality holistic patient-centred palliative care. This paper examines, describes, and analyses this multifaceted role from an antipodean perspective. We conducted systematic searches using PubMed, Google Scholar, government guidelines, authoritative body regulations, quality control guidelines, and government portals pertaining to palliative care nursing in Australia. This paper relies upon the information garnered from publications, reports, and guidelines resulting from these searches and analyses. The fundamental principles and guiding values of palliative care (and nursing) and the raison d’etre for palliative care as a discipline are underscored and expanded on. Australian Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) pertaining to palliative end-of-life (EOL) nursing care and associated services are discussed. The relevant NMBA nursing standards that RNs need to have to administer opioids/narcotics in palliative care are summarised. The identification of patients who need EOL care, holistic person-centred care planning for them, and consultative multidisciplinary palliative clinical decision making are discussed in the palliative care context. Several components of advance care planning apropos health deterioration and conflicts are discussed. Several aspects of EOL care, especially palliative nursing care, are analysed using research evidence, established nursing and palliative care standards, and the Australian EOL CPGs.

Knowledge of Nurses Regarding Palliative Care in Tertiary Care Hospitals of Peshawar: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…This positions them uniquely in supporting patients and their families during critical times, highlighting the importance of palliative care in nursing practice (2)(3)(4). However, studies have highlighted a significant gap in nurses' knowledge regarding palliative care, particularly in symptom management, communication, and spiritual support, underscoring a pressing need for comprehensive education and training in this area (5)(6)(7)(8)(9). Palliative care, as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), encompasses interventions aimed at relieving suffering through early identification, impeccable assessment, and the treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial, and spiritual (10).…”

Needs and expectations of family caregivers of cancer patients in palliative care: A study protocol

“…To address caregiver burnout, interventions must be developed to alleviate it when events occur and prevent it before an event arises (Cochrane et al, 2021;Parola et al, 2022). Healthcare professionals are competent to treat not just the underlying disease but also to provide holistic care to patients, individually and in the context of their families (Cheluvappa and Selvendran, 2022). In this holistic care, healthcare professionals can provide care for nausea or vomiting, pain management, and spiritual and psychological care for patients and their caregivers (Kozlov et al, 2018;Chapman et al, 2022;Coelho et al, 2022).…”

A global exploration of palliative community care literature: An integrative review

“…It is important to investigate how generalist community nurses navigate this area of care and maintain resilience in the face of loss when their primary responsibility is to care for clients at the end‐of‐life. Much research is focussed on the provision of palliative care in Australia in the inpatient setting (Cheluvappa & Selvendran, 2022; King & Yoong, 2023; Luckett et al, 2014), yet little is known about the community setting and looking at this problem globally will inform Australian practice. The aim of this review was to discover how community nurses globally provide palliative care, and how they manage the personal and professional stressors associated with caring for dying clients in the home.…”