Grampians Health appoints Palliative Care manager
Grampians Health’s new Palliative Care manager is carrying a valuable life lesson into her role.
Larna Woodyatt has worked in the critical care areas of Intensive Care and Organ Donation for the past two decades. Early in her career, Larna remembers working with an Emergency Department physician who told her; ‘you only get one chance to give someone a good death’.
The profound guidance has been a lingering constant throughout Larna’s career and remains just as significant today.
While Intensive Care nursing was the forefront of Larna’s career, she has spent the past 10 years working as an Organ Donor Coordinator for Grampians Health and DonateLIfe Victoria, supporting organ donors and their families through some of the most difficult and emotional moments of their lives.
Larna said her previous role had provided important preparation for working with the Palliative Care team.
“While I have been a specialist in end-of-life care through my role as an Organ Donation Specialist, I have never worked specifically in Palliative Care,” Larna said.
“Being a manager is more about supporting the people who provide the clinical care and understand the operational and strategic side of things,” she said.
“I feel it can be helpful as a manager, not being a specialist or expert in the area, as I don’t already have pre-conceived ideas or opinions of what palliative care is and isn't.
“I can ask lots of curious questions seeking to understand and learn from the team. What I do know is that it is such a privilege to be part of the end of someone’s life.
“There’s lots of specialities in nursing but I think palliative care is one particularly that attracts a special type of person who can consistently be part of the privilege that is providing end-of-life care.
“That’s what attracted me to this role, getting to play a part in supporting the people who care for those who are at end-of-life.
“For the nurses who do this work every day, while it can be burdensome sometimes to carry the load, it absolutely is a privilege and palliative care nurses are the epitome of that.”
Larna said the message from the ED physician that continues to resonate for her is that you don’t get to do this again if it doesn’t go well.
“As health care professionals I hope that every staff member does all they can to make sure that when the time comes, patients can die well and in the way they would have liked.”
Grampians Health provides three streams of palliative care services that Larna oversees. Gandarra Palliative Care Unit is the 11-bed palliative care in-patient service in Ballarat, Grampians Palliative Care Consultancy also based in Ballarat and Grampians Palliative Care Community based in Horsham. These teams care for and support patients and their families through the entire Grampians region.
Larna, who has also worked in Governance and Risk Management, has a team of around 16 under her supervision across these three teams. She said she was enjoying the challenge of working in a different space, with different people.
“I am a clinician at heart and still very patient focussed and I want to understand the patient journey and what that means for the staff as well.
“I hope that makes me an approachable and relatable manager.
“I’ve loved meeting a whole range of different people while I've been navigating and learning about a completely different areas of the organisation.”
Chief Operating Officer Ben Kelly said Grampians Health’s Palliative Care nurses held a central and holistic position in the healthcare team.
“I welcome the creation of an overarching manager to support our teams in a unified Palliative Care service across the Grampians region and I want to congratulate Larna on her appointment,” Mr Kelly said.
