Fiona Runacres

• MBBS (Hons), RACGP, FAChPM, AFRACMA
• Director of Supportive & Palliative Care at Monash Health

Community palliative care (CPC) services provide a comprehensive service to many patients with life limiting conditions. Factors which may challenge traditional community models include responding to same-day requests for admissions, admitting clients who wish to pursue active treatment alongside symptom management and managing patients who have co...

Calciphylaxis, or calcific uraemic arteriolopathy (CUA), is a clinical syndrome usually associated with advanced renal disease, which is characterized by vascular calcification and the development of painful ischaemic ulcers. It is a rare disease, with an incidence of only 4.5 cases per 1000 patient-years on dialysis (Toussaint et al 2024). Diagnos...

Objectives To assess the quality assurance of a specialist palliative care clinic focused on chronic diseases and explore the satisfaction and acceptability of the telemedicine model amongst patients and caregivers. Methods A cross-sectional 23-item survey was developed by the clinical team, approved by ethics and distributed to patients and careg...

Background Motor neurone disease is a rare but debilitating illness with incomplete evidence regarding patients’ symptom burden. Palliative care and generalist clinicians are often in-experienced in caring for these patients and assessing their needs. Aim To identify the symptom prevalence and severity experienced by patients with motor neurone di...

Aim: To explore nurses' and family members' perspectives of family care at the end of life, during restricted visitation associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Background: To minimise the transmission of COVID-19, stringent infection prevention and control measures resulted in restricted hospital access for non-essential workers and visitors, cr...

Background A family-centred approach to care can aid family coping at the end of life in critical care. Yet little is known about how families’ preferences for involvement in care planning and decision-making, are assessed and supported. Aim To explore how family involvement and assessment of their needs at the end of life are facilitated and supp...

Background Caring for family members of dying patients is a vital component of end-of-life care, yet family members’ needs at the end of life may be unmet. Aim To explore hospital clinician assessment and facilitation of family needs and practices to support families at the end of life. Design Descriptive study utilising a retrospective medical r...

The global COVID-19 pandemic has challenged healthcare, aged care and palliative care provision in ways previously unimaginable. In Australia, this has been felt particularly amongst our most vulnerable members of society, those residing in residential aged care. Currently representing the majority (75%) of COVID-19 deaths and health-care worker in...

Background Journey mapping involves the creation of visual narrative timelines depicting the multidimensional relationship between a consumer and a service. The use of journey maps in medical research is a novel and innovative approach to understanding patient healthcare encounters. Objectives To determine possible applications of journey mapping...

Background: The global population is ageing, and rates of multimorbidity and chronic illness are rapidly rising. Given specialist palliative care has been shown to improve overall care and reduce health care costs, how best to provide this care to older people is internationally significant. Aim: To examine the knowledge, attitudes and practices...

Purpose Despite clear benefits of early integration of palliative care (PC) and oncology, concerns remain about negative perceptions of PC. Our aim was to explore current knowledge and perceptions of PC in cancer patients. Methods We conducted a prospective, cross-sectional survey. A 16-item questionnaire was distributed to all cancer patients (N...

Background In geriatric inpatient rehabilitation settings, where the goal is to optimise function, providing end-of-life care can be challenging. Aim The aim of this study is to explore how end-of-life care goals and decision-making are communicated in a geriatric inpatient rehabilitation setting. Design The design is a qualitative descriptive de...

Aim: To explore the impact of cultural factors on the provision of end-of-life care in a geriatric inpatient rehabilitation setting. Background: Australia's ageing population is now also one of the most culturally diverse. Individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds may have specific care needs at the end of life according to...

Background: With an ageing population and chronic illness the leading cause of death, challenges exist in meeting the healthcare needs of older people. For older people, care may be provided in subacute care services where, although the focus is on rehabilitation and optimisation of functioning, many older people will die. Aim: To investigate end-o...

With rates of TB increasing in some parts of the world, the disease continues to be a major killer in Africa and Asia. Fiona Runacres et al discuss the issues surrounding the management of the condition in palliative care patients in developed countries, where there is a lack of guidelines on this topic

Introduction: The occurrence of bone metastases is common in patients with advanced cancer. The literature supports percutaneous vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty as minimally invasive procedures to relieve pain and improve quality of life for selected patients with disabling pain from pathological vertebral fractures secondary to bone metastases. C...

Background Palliative care patients have numerous rehabilitation needs that increase with disease progression. Palliative rehabilitation practices and perceptions of palliative medicine physicians towards the role of rehabilitation are largely unstudied. Aim To explore palliative medicine physicians’ attitudes and perceptions towards rehabilitatio...

Non-malignant disease contributes to up to 80% of deaths in Australia. Like patients with malignancies, many patients with non-malignant disease experience significant physical, psychological and spiritual symptoms related to their life-threatening illness. While studies illustrate the benefit of specialist palliative care for patients with non-mal...

Restorative care in palliative care is a subset of rehabilitation that aims to improve quality of life through restoration or maintenance of physical functions. Outcomes for restorative care programmes delivered by palliative care units have not adequately been assessed. The objectives are to examine the outcomes of a restorative care programme in...