Development and implementation of the Specialist Palliative Care in Aged Care (SPACE) Project across Queensland.

There is an urgent and unmet need for specialist palliative care services in residential aged care. The Specialist Palliative Care in Aged Care (SPACE) Project aimed to improve palliative and end-of-life care for older people living in residential aged care facilities in Queensland. A representative working group developed a series of service principles around palliative care practice in aged care (comprehensive resident-focused care, streamlined service, and capacity building).

Increasing the Rate of Documentation of Security Interventions in the Emergency Department: Big Orange Security Sticker (BOSS) Project.

Background: Security interventions in aggressive and violent patients in the emergency department (ED) are not always documented in the clinical record, which can compromise the effectiveness of communication, and increase clinical risks.

Local Problem: Fewer than half of all security interventions are documented in the clinical record.

Methods: The study had a pre- and posttest design including a retrospective audit of patient medical records and a staff survey.

The effects of therapeutic activity kits in emergency department patients with dementia: Study protocol for a pragmatic randomized control trial.

Aim: To determine the effectiveness of therapeutic activity kits on health service use and treatment delivered in the emergency department (ED) in patients with pre-morbid dementia.

Design: Pragmatic randomized control trial with equal parallel groups.

Methods: Participants with dementia will be randomly assigned to the control group (N = 56) or the intervention group (N = 56).

Affecting emergency department oxycodone discharge prescribing: An educational intervention.

Objective: To describe the impact of an educational intervention for ED prescribers on discharge oxycodone prescribing both for the number of oxycodone prescriptions per 1000 discharged patients, and the number of tablets per prescription. Secondary outcomes included the quality of general practitioner communication.

Methods: An interrupted time series assessment was conducted in the ED of a tertiary referral hospital to establish the pre-intervention, peri-intervention and post-intervention prescribing profile of ED medical practitioners.