Attending to the spiritual needs of dying patients

The importance of spiritual care has never been important at the end of life. While this writing is targeted at health care professionals and those in the community in particular, the success of such...

Workforce Plan: A Missed Opportunity for Palliative Care?

The recently published NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (NHS England, 2023) coincides with the 75th anniversary of the creation of the NHS, and heralds a seminal plan to increase staffing levels to match...

Facilitating dying at home through the Hospice at Home service

‘You may not need to move away from home to receive care, as end of life and hospice care can be provided at home. To find out what's available locally, ask your GP. Your GP can arrange for community...

Storytelling in palliative and end-of-life care

The recent pandemic has highlighted the importance of letting patients, relatives and healthcare professionals alike, share their stories on the impact COVID-19 has had on death and dying across...

Dying Matters Awareness Week 2023: death, dying and grief in the workplace

Many people still find it difficult to discuss death and dying; such concepts can evoke different thoughts, feelings and meaning to each individual. To help with our anxieties, this month's Dying...

Living beyond death and dying: managing the challenges of loss and grief among community nurses

There are several strategies and coping methods available for families and close friends during and after death. For example, one modern approach is the Dual Process Model for coping in bereavement,...

Sobriety in death and dying: a delicate balance to achieve

‘… in dealing with death in some persons a new sense of meaning may emerge, which is essentially a receptive experience of connectedness with an ego-transcending reality, such as mankind, nature,...

Labour of caring in palliative care

First, recognise that palliative caring can be a double-edged sword, where one is:.

Enhancing quality of life against all odds

One of the many dimensions of community nursing is to provide end-of-life care at home. While this aspiration follows from the NHS strategy of empowering people to be cared for and to die in their...

Understanding the dying person's perspective

To understand the patient's perspective, it is important to look at their meaning of life, which is better understood as a construct, flexible enough to vary with each person, tribe, culture,...

The Queen dies: lessons beyond palliative care

Whether expected or not, death often provokes grief in those left behind. Grief is a normal reaction to a painful loss; in this case, it is the family of the Queen who will inevitably experience it...

Progress in palliative care: serious illness conversations for community nurses