We have seen a rise in the demand for Palliative and End of Life Care (P&EOLC) services and know that this will be an area that continues to grow (EOL & PC framework 2019-2024). With this in mind, we needed to ask ourselves, how do we build a stronger service, delivering quality palliative and end of life care? 

One of the challenges of preparing for this demand is the variances in care delivery and differing needs of services across a large district.  The challenges of building capacity and capability for multidisciplinary clinicians and teams needs to be recognised and  innovative, strategic education principles applied to ensure the future of the workforce is trained, retained, sustained and confident in delivering quality P&EOLC and ultimately patient outcomes are improved.

Recognising the diverse educational needs of clinicians providing P&EOLC, a District Wide Nurse Educator was piloted to address some of the challenges, learning needs, and building a stronger specialist workforce. 

The climate was particularly challenging due to a pandemic, staff shortages across the district as well as the differing skill levels, service needs, resources and the need for the role to provide equitable P & EOLC education across metropolitan, rural and remote areas across a district of significant size. 

A district wide adaptable mixed model approach was formed, including the extensive use of virtual platforms, building a community of practice and various other modes of education delivery and communication. 

The approach proved that we could reach and connect district wide, with a 793% increase in clinician involvement over a 12-month period, strengthening our service to deliver equitable, high quality, adaptable P&EOLC education, to a health district and beyond.