8th Fijian Nephrology Symposium
Compassionate Care Across Pacific Cultures: A Holistic Approach to Palliative Care
8th and 9th August 2025
For the first time, this year’s Symposium will be held in conjunction with our colleagues from Internal Medicine Organisation of the Pacific (IMOP).
This year’s Symposium theme is focused on Palliative Care which is relevant to not only Nephrology services but all facets of clinical care. Many of the Pacific Island countries have limited treatment options available and so it is essential that we should be able to provide holistic supportive care. To our knowledge no Pacific Island nation currently has an established palliative care service, leaving general healthcare workers and family caregivers to manage end-of-life care with limited training. In addition, stigma in both the general community and amongst health professionals around discussing death can delay referrals, reducing the effectiveness of available services and sometimes wasting our already limited resources.
We hope to see you there to learn, share and work together towards a building a more compassionate health care system in the Pacific.
Registrations are expected to open in May/June
DRAFT Program
Friday 2nd August
09:30 Registration Desk open
10:00 Welcome Address: NSOF & IMOP President
10:30 Essentials of Palliative Care: Cross Cultural Principles and Practices. International speaker
11:00 Morning Tea
11:30 Symptom Management in Palliative Care: Pain and SOB International Speaker
12:00 Symptom Management in Palliative Care: Nausea, Anorexia, Itch and Fatigue International Speaker
12:30 LUNCH
13:30 Managing Palliative Care patients in low-resource and multi-cultural settings Regional speakers
14:00 Cultural Sensitivity in Palliative Care: Bridging Traditions and Modern Medicine Regional speakers
14:30 Prognosticating in Palliative Care International speaker
15:00 TEA BREAK
15:30 The Importance of Multidisciplinary team in Palliative Care
16:00 Facilitated Group Discussion: Challenges and Issues from the Front Line
17:00 Summary and Close
Saturday 9th August
08:30 Registration & opening
09:00 Pallative Care in Nephrology: Kidney Replacement Therapy decisions and Withdrawl from dialysis. Nephrologist
09:30 Pallative Care in Cardiology: Special Considerations. Cardiologist
10:00 Morning Tea
10:30 Palliative Care in Respiratory Medicine International Speaker
11:00 Palliative Care in ICU and ED ICU physician
11:30 Palliative Care Nursing: Nursing speaker(s)
12:00 LUNCH
13:00 Goals of Care, Difficult Discussions and Supporting the Patient and Family Regional Speaker
13:30 Ethical Considerations in End-of-Life Decision-Making Local Speaker
14:00 Current Laws in Fiji with may impact Palliative Care Lawyer
14:30 AFTERNOON TEA
15:00 Facilitated Group Discussion: Next Steps for Palliative Care in Pacific Region
16:00 Closing Session