TE PUAWAI ful meetings, and the role of informal music (ukuleles) in the hospice setting – which could be easily translated into other care settings.
The conference was hugely beneficial to me, and there was a great deal of reference to Aged Care and non-malignant disease, which is very relevant to my current practice. Highlights included:
I wish to thank the College of Nurses committee for the award allowing me to attend this conference, which I thoroughly enjoyed and which has been of huge benefit.
• Networking opportunities. At this conference I have established and reaffirmed a number of important connections, particularly with regard to the development of advanced nursing roles around the country, and also with regard to Advance Care Planning. It was also very worthwhile meeting up with colleagues already known to me. As there is a degree of isolation associated with my role these connections are so important in sustaining and developing my role and everyday practice.
Thank you.
Carla Arkless Palliative Care Nurse Practitioner Presbyterian Support Southland
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• Many sessions focussed on the role of the community in end of life care, and the notion that dying should perhaps be less in the domain of health care providers, and more in the domain of the community. This resonates with me, in an era where death and dying is becoming more and more medicalised – it was refreshing to see this is not being taken for granted, or seen as necessarily inevitable, in New Zealand.
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• Michal Boyd did a presentation, with a focus on residential care – challenging delegates to consider how palliative care and aged care services might truly work together. This, of course, is very relevant to my area of work.
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• There were also a number of concurrent sessions which interested me, including the use of genograms, success23