When words make a difference in palliative care

When talking to patients, any pity response from the health professional (HCP) tends to convey a negative message, that the patient is not being listened to and, with that, they are not reassured...

Getting anticipatory prescribing right in end-of-life care

The Department of Health and Social Care (2012) developed ‘Vision and strategy: an approach to district nursing’, building upon the six Cs (care, compassion, competence, communication, courage and...

Barriers and facilitators to implementing the Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool in a community palliative care setting

The Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool (CSNAT) assesses the support needs of informal carers of people with a terminal illness (Ewing and Grande, 2013). This is a 14-item tool that assesses (a)...

Affording patients their dying wish at the end of life

The purpose of dying wishes can be multifactorial, from personal to including others, mainly those deemed important to the dying person. The request for a dying wish signifies that the patient is...

Paradoxes of death and dying

Caring for dying patients presents a range of challenges, from symptom control and management and effective communication to managing the patient's psychological concerns, which may make community...

Are district nurses well placed to provide equitable end-of-life care to individuals who are homeless?

A PICO question was implemented to develop the question for this literature review (see Table 1). Once the focus question was identified, inclusion and exclusion criteria were set to enable a focused...

Shifting perspectives in palliative and end-of-life care: a personal view

Dignity in death: implementing the NHS Long Term Plan

Using the PEAS technique to communicate in palliative care

ReSPECT and dignity in 2019: Are we ready to meet the challenges?