Conferences and Meetings Attended

Sixth Australian and New Zealand Head and Neck Society Annual Scientific Meeting. Adelaide, Australia. D.Cleghorn.
AuSPEN 30 th Annual Scientific Meeting. Auckland, NZ. G.Rassias and R. Kurmis.

PRESENTATIONS AND POSTERS AT CONFERENCES

Presentation:

Abstract: Free Paper Talk - Enteral Nutrition During Radiotherapy in the Outpatient Setting. D. Cleghorn.

Posters:

Uniformity of nutritional advice: A Team Approach. D. Cleghorn
Better food choices for the Asian palate during Radiotherapy.D. Lee, M. Borg and D. Cleghorn.

MEDICAL STUDENT PROJECTS IN RADIOTHERAPY

Dietitians have continued to participate in the supervision of 3 rd year medical students

with medical staff of Radiotherapy. During 2004, 2 projects were undertaken:

Food for Asian palate during radiotherapy: resource for patients
Questionnaire to evaluate current written patient material

With interest from the medical students, projects in radiotherapy involving dietetic participation will continue during 2005.

RESEARCH PAPER

‘Nutrition Support of the Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Transplant Patient’ (G. Rassias, N. Horvath and R. Fraser) has been submitted for publication.

This has been a significant achievement given the demand for patient care leaving almost no time for research.

We wish to acknowledge the financial assistance from the Department of Haematology during data collection.

SUBMISSION FOR FUNDING FOR EXTRA DIETETIC STAFF IN THE CANCER CENTRE

Unfortunately the submission for funding of extra dietitians from within the RAH to the cancer centre was rejected during 2004. We will need to be more innovative in our approach of the current workload and in our attempts to seek funding for projects or services from outside the hospital.

The implications for not attracting additional resources are however that non-patient related activities including research, quality assurance, dietetic practice guidelines and new initiatives including changes to food service will have low priority.

ATTENDANCE OF DIETETICS MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEETING IN RADIOTHERAPY

A forum of staff including dietetic, medical, nursing and technical have been meeting regularly since the creation of the Specialist Dietitian position in the Cancer Centre to discuss dietetic service delivery to Radiotherapy patients. It is at this forum that issues regarding workload and new initiatives including group education for radiotherapy outpatients have been discussed and are reviewed on a regular basis. This forum has enabled regular communication between the disciplines and a team approach in the dietetic management of radiotherapy patients.