RCT Activity 2024

Our team increased to a total of six members – one nurse practitioner, three clinical nurse specialists and two registered nurses – providing specialist palliative care knowledge and skills in residential care facilities throughout Otago.

You might have seen our poster around, if you recognise one of us in your facility come and say hi as we’re always keen to make new connections.

Highlights from 2024 include:

• Changing from an aged-care to a broader residential care focus as our team is now also responsible for providing services to other facilities that provide care for people that are predominantly aged less than 65 years, such as IDEA Services and PACT facilities.

• A stakeholder survey that helped us identify what we’re doing well and what areas we need to focus on. One area of focus was to expand our specialist palliative care education programme. Keep an eye out for another survey later this year.

• Delivering 34 specialist palliative care education sessions, with 339 attendees. We covered topics such as normal dying, breathlessness, and pain management as well as sessions tailored to educate staff about individual residents on the hospice programme and their needs.

• A significant increase in referrals – 235 in 2022 versus 377 in 2024 – an increase of over 60% in two years. (See 'How to Refer Someone to The RCT' in this issue)

We have some exciting projects and areas of focus for 2025 - keep an eye out for more information about these in future issues.