Almost 30,000 people die in Ireland each year (Hospice Friendly Hospitals, 2007) and of this number 68% die in acute and community care settings. This would indicate that end of life care (EoLC) constitutes a core activity in hospitals with the necessary structures in place to enable requisite skills, knowledge and expertise in this area for staff. Until recently, nursing and midwifery education and development in EoLC has largely been based on experiential learning, where custom and practice generally dictated how care was planned and implemented, particularly in the final stages of death. The influence of specialist palliative care teams has had a considerable influence on the provision of palliative care, with particular emphasis on symptom management, education, leadership and research. Yet fundamental care practices can fall short of what is required to ensure that practices are effective and meet the needs of patients and their families…

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This article by Michael Shannon, Lorna Peelo-Kilroe is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 License.