Report on internship in palliative care South Adelaide palliative services, South Australia

Abstract

Having acquired some knowledge in the palliative-care field over the last year, I felt the urgency for developing some practical skills. As such, contacts have been made and I enrolled in a 9-week internship in the South Adelaide Palliative Services (SAPS), in Adelaide, South Australia, from July to September 2014. I got to know a high-quality palliative-care service and develop activities like inpatients’ and outpatients’ assistance, consultancy and a research project. In my last week in Australia, I visited another palliative-care service at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, in order to compare different perspectives and ways of working. My main goal was to get the full experience of a highly specialised palliative-care service and because of that my schedule was rather flexible. I also wanted to develop skills in symptom management, communication, psychosocial approaches and research. All the activities developed were extremely productive and helped me to build some solid knowledge and ideas to apply in my daily work. Additionally, it helped me to see changes that can be made to improve the quality of care we provide to our patients. The research project concerning the issue of chronic refractory breathlessness has resulted in an article which is currently submitted for peer review to the “The Journal of Pain and Symptom Management”.

Date of Award	2015
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Catherine Swetenham (Supervisor) & David Currow (Supervisor)