Early Identification for a Palliative Approach to Care: A Change Initiative

About this event:

Identification of palliative care needs and the provision of a palliative approach to care are not consistently done throughout health-care organizations. As such, clients may not have their holistic needs met, nor be given the time to prepare for the end of life, engage in advance care planning and identify goals of care; this may cause significant distress for the client, their families and other care partners. This may also lead to conflict with health-care teams, and moral distress in health-care professionals.

In response, St. Joseph’s Care Group embarked on the Early Identification for a Palliative Approach to Care initiative. Early identification of palliative care needs impacts client care through: initiating care plan changes that support client and family need; providing opportunities for discussion regarding goals of care; and providing opportunities for education to improve clients’ understanding of their illness. This initiative was a collaboration between the Best Practice Spotlight Organization Lead & Steering Committee, the North-West Regional Palliative Care Program, and Planning & Performance Team.

In this webinar participants will be guided through St. Joseph’s Care Group’s planning, implementation and evaluation of this quality improvement project. This initiative aims to build the capacity within interdisciplinary teams to support conversations about advance care planning, palliative approach to care and substitute decision makers.  

The workshop will provide insight into facilitators and barriers and how the team persevered through pandemic implementation and constant turn-over. St. Joseph’s Care Group’s interdisciplinary rehabilitative teams are committed to providing superior client care and are passionate about ensuring everyone has equal opportunity to prepare for their palliative journey. 

Presenters and credentials:

Tanis Banovsky, RN, BScH, nursing professional practice lead and Best Practice Spotlight Organization lead, St. Joseph’s Care Group
Markiana (Mia) Huzan, MBA, HBSc,BA, performance improvement lead, Regional Palliative Care Program, St. Joseph’s Care Group