Establishing a nurse practitioner model to enhance continuity between palliative care settings

Abstract

Background: Nurse practitioners (NP) are relatively new in Australia with national registration achieved in 2010. Most NP-related literature is about establishing models and scope of practice. This paper reports on the establishment and 12-month evaluation of an NP model of care, between inpatient and community palliative care services, developed to coordinate client care between hospital and home. Aim: To enhance patient outcomes, in hospital or home; to enhance professional relationships between services and facilitate effective discharges and admissions between services. Design and setting: Both services worked together to develop an evaluation framework, based on agreed key performance i..