Editorial

Excellent end of life care requires time and resources

Our exclusive survey with Marie Curie reveals the difficulties nurses face in ensuring patients experience a good death, writes Graham Scott.
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Delivering excellent end of life care is among the biggest challenges faced by nurses today, regardless of their level of experience or place of work. 

Just about every nurse will be confronted with a dying patient at some stage, so it is essential they have the training and resources to cope.

A survey of Nursing Standard readers on the issue, conducted on behalf of the charity Marie Curie, paints a mixed picture. It seems that while nurses are confident in providing end of life care, there are concerns about them not having enough time to meet the needs of patients and their families.

Familiar issues

The concerns are as familiar as they are predictable. An insufficient number of staff, time constraints and a lack of specialist provision are the main barriers encountered by our readers, with disjointed services and inadequate emotional support for staff not far behind.

On a more encouraging note, nine out of ten respondents said they felt very or fairly confident discussing patients’ needs and wishes with them and with their loved ones.

It is almost four years since the English government decided to scrap the Liverpool Care Pathway, which had long been seen as the ‘gold standard’ of end of life care but became tarnished by inappropriate application.

What is needed now is a concerted national effort to ensure that staff are suitably prepared for their role in helping people they care for experience as good a death as possible, whether their own or that of someone dear to them.


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