Hub Staff
A new partnership in is hoping to bolster palliative care and support for families in Grey and Bruce counties.
Beginning this Fall Georgian College and Brightshores are offering palliative care training to a health care providers including primary care physicians, care coordinators, community nurses, and pharmacists; those who see palliative patients through their end-of-life stages.
Dr Kelly Fenn, Palliative Medicine Physician at Brightshores Health Systems is the lead physician for the project and said the need for high-quality palliative care in the community is greater than ever.
"Most people want to be at home near the end of life, yet many rural and underserved communities face barriers to make that possible," Fenn said, adding that the project will bring simulation-based learning to a home setting.
Director of the Brightshores Research Institute, Dr Rebecca Brookham, is the first adjunct scientist at the college through the new partnership and will help lead the research and training at Georgian's Owen Sound campus.
Funding for the initiative was provided by Pan-Canadian Care Research Collaborative through a contribution from Health Canada's Health Care Policy and Strategies Program. Training will include a mix of hired actors as well as high-fidelity manikins as simulated palliative patients and includes three six-hour sessions in a simulated lab setting designed to look like someone's home.
Hired actors will also play family members so training can include being involved in intense and emotionally charged situations.
With a current expansion of Georgian's Nursing program's Honours Bachelor of Science into clinical placements in palliative care, there is also future potential to expand this new training into the college's Nursing curriculum.
A June 9 media release said that the palliative care project is part of Georgian and Brightshores' agreement to cross-appoint adjunct scientists to enhance health research and education and is unique as partnerships of this kind are uncommon in Canada outside of university settings.
