Media Releases

Hospice courses to benefit terminally ill

September, 2005.- Hospice New Zealand is launching two new courses to help caregivers and nurses provide better care for people with terminal illness.

The Syringe Driver Competency Programme and Palliative Care Education for Care Assistants will be officially launched in Wellington this Friday, September 16, and presented to clinical educators and specialist palliative care nurses from hospices throughout the country.

Hospice New Zealand’s 12-strong education advisory committee has spent the past 10 months developing the courses in response to a need identified by the national body.

The courses will enable nurses and caregivers in any setting to undertake the training that will be taught by palliative care clinical educators and specialist palliative care nurses.

Committee chairman Anne Denton says the Syringe Driver Competency Programme will give registered nurses the theoretical and practical knowledge and skills required to manage syringe drivers in their own practice settings.

Enrolled nurses may also complete the programme, though nurses are obliged to work within their scope of practice as outlined by the Nursing Council of New Zealand.

“Syringe drivers have revolutionised palliative care symptom management. No longer do patients require injections every four hours. The syringe driver is a simple efficient way of delivering medications to a patient who is unable to swallow or absorb their medication,” says Mrs Denton.

The second course, Palliative Care for Care Assistants, is designed to provide caregivers with key principles, practical knowledge and skills of palliative care.

“Care assistants provide day-to-day practical care and support for their patients and residents with a terminal illness and they need the skills to do so.”

Mrs Denton says the courses will strengthen palliative care knowledge and service provision in New Zealand.

“They will develop and enhance the knowledge and skills in both caregivers and nurses which will, in turn, enhance the quality of care for those with life limiting illnesses.”

Mrs Denton says Hospice New Zealand is committed to promoting the provision of palliative care training and it has once again shown a leading role in palliative care education.

“When it was discovered that the training in these areas were ad hoc and in some areas there was no training at all, Hospice New Zealand saw it needed rectifying, that standards needed to be high, reviewed regularly and consistent throughout the country.”

Thirty seven hospices come under Hospice New Zealand’s umbrella and all provide palliative care free of charge to people living with a terminal illness, while also supporting family/whanau and friends.

Hospices are partially Government funded but rely on community fundraising to cover the remainder of service-associated costs.

CAPTION: Hospice New Zealand education advisory committee members, from left, Kate Gallatly, Bridget Marshall and Raewyn Jenkins check out the new material for the courses.