Kate Swetenham, President
Kate Swetenham is the Clinical Lead for the End of Life Care Team in the Department for Health and Wellbeing. Kate is a Registered Nurse with extensive leadership experience in specialist palliative care. Kate was the Clinical Director for Southern Adelaide Palliative Services for 15 years, and in that time supported the triple strand of care approach where education and research inform clinical practice.
Kate is particularly passionate about the psychosocial aspects of illness and suffering and has focused much of her research activities on refractory suffering and the experience of the patient facing an end of life illness. Kate holds a Graduate Diploma in Psycho Oncology a Master of Palliative Care and a Master of Science. She also has academic status with Flinders University and contributes to teaching the communication skills component of the Graduate Certificate in Palliative Care.
Kate has been the beneficiary of 3 international travel scholarships. In 2009 Kate was awarded the Diana Rudd scholarship to attend the Psycho -Oncology conference in Vienna.
In 2012 Kate was awarded the Premier’s Nursing and Midwifery scholarship and travelled to New Zealand, Canada and United Kingdom where she studied rapid response programs for palliative care and Day Hospice Models.
In 2017 Kate was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study End of Life Care Strategies: Barriers and Enablers to Implementation. This fellowship was undertaken in Ireland, Scotland, England, and Canada.
Kate brings her clinical, research and education experience to her work in the Department for Health and Wellbeing and enjoys working at a strategic level to improve the end of life experience for all.