Blog

Catch Karyn speaking on Friday afternoon on ‘Developing the Art of Decision Making in Pain Relief and Palliative Care for Children’

What is your current role/job/position?

I am a Nurse Practitioner working in the Paediatric Palliative Care Team at Starship Children’s Hospital. I am involved with providing direct care to children and their families in the Greater Auckland Region and also provide a consultative service nationally to support health professionals to care for children wherever they are.

How did you get into working in Pain Management?

My involvement in pain management has developed out of wanting to provide the best possible care for children with life-limiting conditions, to minimise their suffering and to support them to maximise their potential as much as possible. Having been involved in paediatric palliative care now for many years I have seen many changes in prognosis of many conditions and in turn this influences how we provide care. I find working in this dynamic field challenging and inspiring. I believe there is still so much to learn and still so much we can do to improve comfort and quality of life for children and their families with palliative care needs.

What do you hope people might take away from your presentation?

Providing paediatric palliative care is not easy; providing the best comfort care and minimising pain and suffering often requires complex decisions depending on where the child might be in the trajectory of their illness. The process of pain management in this time of unknown prognosis, and the experience and knowledge of those providing the care, can influence how these symptoms including pain are managed.

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CONFERENCE WEBSITE
ONLINE REGISTRATION CLOSES MONDAY 16TH MARCH

What is your current role/job/position?

I completed my pharmacy degree in Australia and moved to New Zealand just over 2 years ago. I am currently working at Middlemore Hospital with Counties Manukau Health in South Auckland. My position involves working within the Acute Pain Service to provide MDT care to our post-operative and other patients with acute pain. I also am a part of the Well Managed Pain initiative which is a project is a multidisciplinary approach to managing complex inpatient pain. Our project aims to improve the co-ordination of care of patients with complex pain by working with them to improve their ability to manage their pain out of hospital and to minimise their risk of medication-related harm.

My contribution to both of these teams largely involves review of medications with regards to quality and safety and this is with a pain focus as well as with a holistic view. Patient education and discharge planning for pain management is also a key responsibility.

The rest of my time is spent working with one of our General Surgical teams to provide clinical pharmacy input.

How did you get into working in Pain Management?

I actually started out working in pain management during my first year as a brand new pharmacist. This was when I was still in Australia and, despite being so junior, the encouragement of my manager at the time stirred up my interest and enthusiasm for the area.

After moving to New Zealand I was assigned to a rotational position with the Acute Pain Service at Middlemore Hospital and have been there ever since. The role of pharmacists working in Pain Management is still developing in New Zealand and it is really great to be a part of this. The pain teams, pharmacy department and anaesthetic department are incredibly supportive of my position and I’m really lucky to work with such an amazing group of people.

What do you hope people might take away from your presentation?

I guess I’m just hoping that what I talk about is useful and relevant to all people working in pain. I have put together this talk so that it includes the sorts of things I am often asked about. Hopefully this means that my presentation will answer the kinds of questions many others have often wondered about.

Sometimes when working in a specialist area it is easy to forget how our medications might interfere with other issues for our patients. I hope this presentation will also get people thinking about the effects of analgesics outside of their use in pain.

Lastly, I hope my talk might encourage other DHBs to consider introducing pharmacists into their pain management teams to help with the numerous medication-related issues involved in the management of these patients.

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CONFERENCE WEBSITE
ONLINE REGISTRATION CLOSES MONDAY 16TH MARCH

The second of our series of 2 minute ‘mini-blogs’ with speakers from the upcoming #nzps2015 Annual Scientific Meeting

Dr Jim Bartley is an Ear Nose & Throat Surgeon and also the author of two helpful books – ‘Breathing Matters’ and ‘Healing Headaches’ (both of which I have on my bookshelf).
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What is your current role/job/position?

Otolaryngologist, Counties Manukau DHB; Honorary Associate Professor in Surgery, The University of Auckland & Biotechnology, AUT University, Auckland, NZ

How did you get into working in Pain Management?

I am an ear nose and throat surgeon who was one of the early pioneers of endoscopic sinus surgery in New Zealand.  I became interested in patients whom I was seeing with “sinus” pain and I could find nothing wrong with their sinuses.  I became interested in trying to work out what the problem was.  I also at the same time became interested in hyperventilation.  Because I was interested in this I was then asked to join the Pain Clinic at Auckland Hospital.  I thought that I would be seeing the facial pain patients only but I ended up seeing all types of pain patients there.

What do you hope people might take away from your presentation?

My presentation is on Breathing and Pain.  I would hope that people will go away with a better appreciation of how good breathing patterns can help a large variety of pain conditions.

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CONFERENCE WEBSITE
ONLINE REGISTRATION CLOSES MONDAY 16TH MARCH

It is now just a little over 6 weeks until #nzps2015 Annual Scientific Meeting kicks off in Auckland.  The ASM is always a valuable few days (you can check out my Twitter Feed from last years meeting here), but this years theme “Pain through the ages” really does promise something for everyone.

To showcase some of the talks on the programme, we have invited some to the speakers to share a little bit about themselves, and their talk.

First up – Diane Henare, who will be speaking on Saturday afternoon on the challenges of delivering pain management services in a rural setting.

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What is your current role/job/position?

I am currently a self-employed occupational therapist contracted to Active Intervention Management Ltd . I am particularly  involved in the delivery of the Functional Assessment part of the ACC Comprehensive Pain Assessment as well as working with a team and  delivering the occupational therapy component of the  12 week Activity Focus Programmes  in the Northland Region. I am also contracted to Te Tai Tokerau PHO to facilitate a self-management programme for people with chronic health conditions known in the North as Whakamana Hauora (using the Stanford Living a Healthy Life with Chronic Conditions  programme).  I have worked in pain management now for 20 years.

Living in the Bay of Islands is a bonus.

How did you get into working in Pain Management?

I began working as an occupational therapist at The Auckland Regional Pain Service (TARPS)  filling a locum position  at the end of 1995 and was lucky enough to be able to continue in that position as a permanent member of the team until 2009 when I moved to the Bay of Islands. During that time I developed a passion for working with people with pain and this later extended to working with people with chronic health conditions in general as the principles transfer to a wide range of health management areas. I also valued working with such a great team and wanted to be able to continue working with a team approach when I moved to Northland.

What do you hope people might take away from your presentation?

The reinforcement that working with people with chronic pain requires a team approach wherever you are and it is possible to build that team approach even in a challenging geographical and rural environment.

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CONFERENCE WEBSITE
ONLINE REGISTRATION CLOSES MONDAY 16TH MARCH