workforce
Crossing barriers and blazing trails
Palliative care nurse wins
inaugural award.
Nikki Johnston interviewed by Conor Burke
T
he inaugural Health Minister’s
Award for Nursing Trailblazers has
been awarded to a Canberra nurse
for her work in improving the delivery
of palliative care to Australians living in
residential aged care.
Nikki Johnston, a palliative care nurse
practitioner based in Canberra at Calvary
Health Care’s Clare Holland House, took
out the award for her ‘INSPIRED’ project,
which aims to integrate specialist palliative
care into residential aged care, providing
better pain management and helping
people die in the place of their choosing.
The award is the first of its kind in
Australia and acknowledges the vital role
nurses play in transforming our country’s
health and aged care system.
“This award is about recognising nurses
who are leading the way, who are able to
influence policy and models of care that
can be implemented nationally. Nurses are
patient advocates who are instrumental to
the promotion, prevention and treatment
34 agedcareinsite.com.au
of healthcare to patients and communities,”
Australian College of Nursing chief
executive Kylie Ward said.
“Congratulations to Nikki on being
selected as this year’s Nursing Trailblazer
for her work in improving the delivery
of palliative care to Australians living in
residential aged care.”
In a conversation with Aged Care Insite,
Johnston – who also recently picked up a
Medal of the Order of Australia – praised
her colleagues at every opportunity, saying
that nurses in the sector are “so hard
working and undervalued”.
“It is such a pleasure working here with
a lot people without whom the work
wouldn’t be possible,” she said.
Aged Care Insite spoke with Johnston
about her work.
ACI: How did this award come about?
NJ: Well, my boss nominated me – which
was lovely – for the work that I started, but
finished with the help of many. I want that
to be clear: it wasn’t just me. I couldn’t have
got where I am today without a lot of help
from a lot of people.
The work you were recognised for is
called INSPIRED – integrating specialist
palliative care into residential care for
older people. Can you run us through
how the program works and how
it all began?
We noticed that the workforce in aged care
really needed some mentoring and support
to increase its capacity to care for people
at end of life. We saw that as a big need
across the community.
We also saw that people weren’t living
and dying very well, or that experiences
weren’t consistent throughout residential
aged care. We think that specialist palliative
care should be available to people in
residential aged care, but across the nation
that’s not happening because the states
fund specialist palliative care, and the
Commonwealth funds residential aged
care. So, quite often state-run services
can’t walk through the front door of
residential aged care. We decided to just
say: “Yes, we’re going to do that.” We
crossed that barrier.
Access to medicine at end of life was
an issue that we found out about. Say
someone in residential aged care has pain.
Someone has to notice that they’ve got
pain, someone has to assess that, then we
have to get a GP in, then they have to write
a script, write medicine on a chart, and