Nurse practitioner-palliative care at Royal Perth Hospital: an evaluation using the palliative care outcomes collaboration (PCOC) quality improvement program

Background: In 2010, Royal Perth Hospital (RPH) appointed its first Nurse Practitioner (NP) working in palliative care. To evaluate this service delivery, four key palliative care benchmarks from the Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) were used. These are, benchmark (BM) One: Referral to first contact (responsiveness), Two: Time in the unstable phase (timely management of acuity), Three: Change in pain (pain management), and Four: Change in other symptoms relative to the national average (benchmarking with other specialised palliative care services).