Dr Sarah Winch will share her latest book, Best Death Possible, A guide for dying Australians. In this presentation, she will consider ethical issues related to end of life and insights into compassion satisfaction and fatigue. Heroic measures are frequently demanded from clinicians who willingly oblige by negotiating a plethora of emotional and physical barriers to provide excellent care. Ultimately, however, unless systematic structures are not only established but also accessed the wellspring of compassion runs dry; causing poor outcomes for staff and ultimately patients.

This session uses an interactive Socratic process that respects, and draws on, the moral knowledge of the participants. It is premised on the belief that most individuals have the ethical awareness needed to create environments that encourage compassion satisfaction; that sense of deep human flourishing identified by Aristotle as ‘eudaimonia’. It is time to take those value statements off the workplace wall and create work environments that support the ethical safety of staff as well as their physical well-being!