New faces join Tauranga Hospital’s
chaplaincy team
Shelley, Sam and Leanne are delighted to
welcome ten new members to Tauranga
Hospital’s chaplaincy team this year. The
commissioning service was held earlier
this month where the new volunteers
were presented with their certificates and
commissioned into active service within the
hospital through karakia and waiata.
Our trainees go through a four month training course covering
many topics including: ethics, listening skills, boundaries, the
theology and ministry of chaplaincy, grief, death and dying, and
working with different faiths.
Our volunteers, like ourselves, come from a non-denominational
stance. They visit their chosen ward for a couple of hours each
week, connecting with patients, listening to the underlying
concerns they have, encouraging them in their spirituality and, if
asked, provide them with prayer or other rituals.
Tauranga Hospital is now well supported with two full time ecumenical
chaplains, one part time catholic chaplain and 22 volunteers.
Planning for a future
By Ellen Fisher, Future Care Planning
Implementation Manager.
During Hospice Awareness Week, Waipuna
Hospice hosted about 120 people at their first
symposium with a theme of “Planning for a
future”. This may seem contradictory when
hospice relates to the end-of-life but the day
was most certainly future-focused.
BOPDHB CE Helen Mason spoke at the symposium about her
year as Harkness Fellow and the value of Advance Care Planning
(ACP). Some of you will have already heard Helen talk about how
to implement ACP into a health system so will know it’s really
about changing the way we think about death and dying.
Michal Boyd, a Nurse Practitioner from Auckland University, spoke
about the challenges of caring for older people living in aged care
facilities in their last days of life. It was interesting to hear how she
framed the ACP conversation about a resident’s goals of care and
talked about “advanced frailty” rather than palliative care.
Waipuna was the first stop of a New Zealand tour for Dr Sarah
Russell, Research leader at Hospice UK. She shared her
experiences of caring for her elderly mother, who has advanced
dementia. Sarah estimates that she has had more than 2,500
advance care planning conversations with her mother while
caring for her and has had to make some really tough decisions
on her mother’s behalf. It was a real insight into the day-to-day
challenges of being a carer 24/7.
Professor Merryn Gott from Auckland University ended the
symposium, speaking about some of the work she has been doing
with families, like Sarah’s, providing care to their loved ones.
It was called “Bringing family caregiving out of the shadows”.
Merryn spoke about how family is the foundation of the palliative
care workforce but often, family feel isolated and struggle to
get information. She suggested that working together to create
integrated models of palliative care within which carers work is
respected and supported is the way forward.
It really was a worthwhile day and hopefully, there’s more to come.
21