Flash of Inspiration Leads to Innovative Practice Award

Denise van Aalst, Kōwhai Programme Coordinator, first felt a flash of inspiration while driving along listening to a "really bad" podcast on palliative care. 

With help from the specialist palliative team at Otago Community Hospice and supported by Hospice New Zealand, the Ending Life Well podcast was born.

The series, which provides reliable palliative advice and information for carers, contains 17 episodes designed to help people who may find themselves out of their depth caring for someone nearing end of life.

"I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved, knowing absolutely nothing about podcasts when we got started — but we’ve had an amazing editor.

"We’ve tried to make it easy to listen to. These aren’t lectures or presentations; it’s a conversation on a topic."

Denise's work on the podcast was recognised at the recent Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand Southern Nursing Excellence Awards where she won the Innovative Practice Award. 

On the 1st Anniversary of its launch, the "Ending Life Well" podcast has seen over 3600 downloads, mostly from New Zealand users, but also include people in Australia, Asia and the Pacific.

"We’re talking about caring for somebody at the end of life, and what dying looks like and what grief is like. That doesn’t really change, no matter where you are."

All 17 episodes are available for anyone to listen to on the Otago Community Hospice website.
https://otagohospice.co.nz/education/httpsotagohospice-co-nzpatient-serviceskowhai-programmecarers-podcast/