Kathy Blake
de Souza Nurse
RN - Registered Nurse - Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance
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Kathy works in Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance (HPHA) as a registered nurse specialized in oncology. Many of her clients are elderly, greater than 65 years and have multiple co-morbidities in addition to their cancer diagnosis. Care is often fragmented involving regional cancer program, family health team, home care, cancer care nurses and clinic physicians. The ownership of introducing palliative care is not well defined and at times introduced too late in the client’s life. Kathy is committed to bring best practices in the optimization of palliative care in rural Ontario. She promotes the use of distress screening tools and prognostication tools; works with families on palliative care planning; and supports collaboration between CCAC, social workers, ethics staff, and primary care physicians in building a palliative care network supporting the transition between hospital and community care.