APHN’s hosted the first session of our Quarterly Webinar Series (2020) on 23rd March 2020.
We were honoured to have Professor Patsy Yates (Australia) to speak on the topic of “Education Capacity in Asia Pacific- An Overview”.
Distinguished Professor Patsy Yates, PhD, RN, FACN, FAAN is jointly appointed as Head, School of Nursing at Queensland University of Technology, Lead Researcher for the Cancer Nursing Professorial Precinct at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, and Director for Queensland Health’s statewide Centre for Palliative Care Research and Education (CPCRE). She has over 30 years’ experience in research, education and clinical practice in cancer and palliative care. She is the immediate Past-President of Palliative Care Australia and is President of the International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care.
Professor Yates is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and has been inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame. She was awarded the 2018 ONS Distinguished Researcher Award at the ONS 43rd Annual Congress in the US.
Each session was approximately 60 minutes, encompassing 45 minutes of a pre-recorded/live lecture and a 15-minute real-time question and answer segment where participants could directly pose their questions to the speakers or via a message board.
Organisational members from the Asia Pacific region were invited to participate as a host site where they would screen the webinar from their institution and facilitate meaningful, face-to-face discussions among the participants. Apart from members, interested colleagues or persons could attend the webinar at these host sites.
However, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, many of our host sites were unable to host the webinar session at their institution. Instead, we conducted the webinar on the Zoom platform, which was a first for the APHN. Despite the disruption to the original plans, the platform allowed the participants to communicate with the speaker directly during the Q&A segment, creating an enjoyable interactive experience. The handful of people that were able to participate gave positive feedback regarding the session.
The second webinar session of 2020 took place on 26th May 2020. Dr Joan Marston (South Africa) kindly took the time to speak on “Palliative Care in Humanitarian Crisis”, which was fitting as we were in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr Marston is the co-founder of PalCHASE – Palliative Care in Humanitarian Aid Situations and Emergencies. Dr Marston was previously the first national Advocacy Manager and then National Paediatric Palliative Care Manager for the Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa, during which time she co-founded the International Children’s Palliative Care Network in 2005 and became their first CEO; developed Beacon Centres for Children’s Palliative Care and worked on a project to develop children’s palliative care in Maharashtra, India. She also established the Sunflower Children’s Hospice in 1998 in response to the impact of HIV and AIDS on children, as well as Hospice Bloemfontein in 2017, and is an active volunteer nurse with both hospices.
She is presently the vice-president of the Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Foundation US vice-chair of PatchSA the South African national network for paediatric palliative care and an Advisor to the Board of the African Palliative Care Association. Dr. Marston is a registered nurse and midwife, palliative care and paediatric palliative care nurse practitioner, and nurse educator with further qualifications in Sociology and Social Anthropology.
APHN’s webinars are usually members-only exclusive content. However, during these times we decided to make these sessions available to the public to enhance eLearning options in communities. Participants from all over the world have joined our webinars since then! Dr Marston delivered a lecture jam packed with information and shared some resources with the participants. Following the lecture, the participants and speaker engaged in a lively Q&A session.
We would like to express our gratitude to Professor Patsy Yates and Dr Joan Marston for taking time out of their busy schedules to share with us their wonderful insights on the topic at hand.
Would also like to thank Mr. Timothy Chiang who has been helping out with the coordination and technical aspects of all our webinar sessions. With his help, we were able to have smooth running webinar sessions.
APHN members will be able to access the archive of all our webinar sessions and more! Not a member? Join our family today!
Stay tuned for updates on our next webinar session happening in August 2020!
Article written by Trudy Giam (APHN Executive)
Edited by Djin Tay (APHN Volunteer)